910 
RURAL.  NEW-YORKER 
rotary,  wliore  doubtless  it  has  (lied  a  natural  death. 
So  much  for  government  authorities. 
THE  EXPRESS  COMPANY’S  ATTITUDE. — I  at¬ 
tempted  to  get  my  ease  before  the  president  of  the 
express  company  and  was  coolly  informed  by  his 
private  secretary  that  T  could  not  see  him,  and  that 
further  it  was  his  business  (said  secretary)  to  keep 
just  such  people  away  from  him.  The  case  has  been 
laid  before  other  officials  of  the  company,  all  of 
whom  admit  that  it  is  a  very  hard  case,  and  they 
do  not  question  the  truth  of  my  statements  in  the 
least,  but  they  offer  no  redress.  One  New  York 
official,  who  admitted  the  inability  of  the  express 
company  to  deliver  eggs  in  New  York  safely,  said 
that  he  had  power  to  make  an  adjustment,  but.  that 
be  would  not  do  so.  He  too  did  not  question  the 
truth  of  my  statements.  In  fact  he  told  me  that  he 
believed  every  word  I  said. 
AN  ADMITTED  WRONG.— Now  T  submit  here  a 
case  of  grievous  wrong  done  to  a  plain  citizen  by 
a  great  corporation,  a  wrong  which  is  admitted 
by  the  corporation’s  officials.  So  far  as  1  have 
been  able  to  discover  there  is  no  power  in  the 
United  States  to  enforce  reparation.  If  T  were 
the  only  victim  of  this  sort  of  thing  it  would  be 
bad  enough,  but  the  fact  is  that  it  is  nation-wide; 
wherever  express  companies  operate.  The  rail? 
roads  are  curbed  to  some  extent  by  various  com¬ 
missions.  The  express  companies  are  still  free  to 
play  the  part  of  land  pirates,  and  they  are  doing  it 
now  as  they  always  have  done,  popular  impression 
to  the  contrary  notwithstanding.  Further,  they  are 
prospering.  It  is  time  that  they  were  under  dras- 
■ 
tic  control,  and  you  can  do  the  country  and  your 
readers  no  greater  service  than  to  advocate  that 
they  be  put  under  the  control  of  one  of  the  IT.  S. 
Public  Service  Commissions.  Tn  that  event  a  man 
with  a  grievance  like  mine  could  present  his  case 
before  the  commission,  with  reasonable  hope  of  se¬ 
curing  justice.  Under  present  conditions,  there  is 
absolutely  uo  redress.  I  and  mine  must  pay  for  the 
incompetence  of  the  express  company’s  management, 
for  this  is  purely  a  case  where  the  management  is 
at  fault,  as  can  easily  he  demonstrated.  m.  p.  t.. 
Maryland. 
Live-stock  and  Maintenance  of  the  Soil 
A  Safe  Ideal  of  Soil  Management 
PAKT  IV. 
FARMER  FREED  FROM  NITROGEN  LIMITA¬ 
TION. — Roughly,  these  are  the  underlying  facts  in 
the  use  of  fertilizers.  While  nitrogen  appears  to  be 
the  element  most  likely  to  be  exhausted  there  is  a 
little  joker  here.  The  chief  storehouse  of  nitrogen 
in  the  soil  is  the  organic  matter  and  the  supply  of 
one  measures  the  supply  of  the  other.  Rut  Nature’s 
store  of  nitrogen  is  not  the  soil  hut  the  atmosphere. 
Over  each  acre  of  land  there  is  approximately  40.- 
000  tons  of  free  nitrogen  gas.  Rut  this  is  a  form 
farm  crops  cannot  use  directly.  Before  it  is  avail¬ 
able  to  corn  or  wheat  and  also  to  clover  or  pens,  it 
must  be  tied  up  with  one  of  Ihe  constituents  of 
water,  either  with  hydrogen  to  form  ammonia  or 
with  oxygen  to  form  nitric  acid.  There  are  several 
ways  in  which  this  combination  is  brought  about, 
and  one  of  them  is  through  the  operation  of  certain 
small  plants  in  the  soil.  Some  are  bacteria,  others 
are  thread-like  plants — fungi.  The  association  of 
legumes — clover,  beans,  peas,  etc.,  with  these  para- 
sitie  plants  gives  them  their  chief  value  to  the  farm¬ 
er  to  keep  up  the  available  nitrogen  supply.  This 
point  is  to  be  kept  in  mind  for  future  reference  in 
connection  with  the  discussion  of  manures  and  green, 
manures  and  the  organic  matter  problem. 
MOISTURE  CONDITIONS  ARE  DOMINANT.— 
The  water  supply  and  the  food  supply  are  the  two 
materials  of  plant  building  that  come  to  the  plant 
through  the  soil.  We  have  just  pointed  out  the  ade¬ 
quacy  of  the  latter.  In  the  Eastern  States  where 
the  annual  rainfall  is  generally  in  excess  of  needs, 
the  chief  problem  is  to  avoid  having  too  much  and 
to  be  able  to  store  the  needed  supply  in  the  surface 
three  feet  of  soil  against  the  time  of  drought.  The 
adjustment  of  the  water  supply  of  the  soil  over¬ 
shadows  all  other  phases  of  soil  management  as  <>m* 
looks  over  the  globe.  It  dictates  drainage  in  humid 
regions  with  as  much  force  as  it  dictates  irrigation 
in  arid  regions.  If,  therefore,  appears  that  there  are 
not  only  groups  of  soil  treatment  hut  that  there  is  a 
correct  order  in  which  these  several  treatments 
should  be  applied  to  every  soil.  It  means  that  in 
diagram,  Fig.  350.  which  is  a  fair  epitome  of  the 
principles  of  soil  management  for  permanent  pro¬ 
ductiveness.  It  does  not  follow  that  all  of  them 
should  be  applied  to  every  soil.  It  means  that  in 
looking  over  a  soil  for  its  improvement  these  sev¬ 
eral  conditions  should  be  kept  in  mind  and  so  far 
as  possible  given  lirst  attention,  remembering  that 
an  underlying  condition  controls  and  overshadows 
everything  above  it. 
HUMUS  THIRD  IN  SOIL  IMPROVEMENT  — 
From  this  it  appears  that  organic  matter  is  the 
third  section  in  this  train  of  treatments.  It  also 
reveals  the  fact.  that,  where  the  land  is  unduly  wet 
or  unduly  aeid  the  use  of  manure,  green  crops,  till¬ 
age  or  fertilizers  is  of  small  avail,  a  fact  that  many 
farmers  ha%'e  not  yet  appreciated.  It  also  reveals 
the  fact  that  fertilizers  come  after  the  maintenance 
of  organic  matter  in  importance.  Of  course,  since 
organic  matter  contains  plant  food,  especially  the 
most  critical  element,  nitrogen,  it.  may  take  the 
place  of  commercial  fertilizers  to  a  considerable  ex¬ 
tent.  Rut  there  is  a  limit  to  that  substitution.  In 
muck  soils,  for  example,  the  material  is  practically 
all  organic  matter  but  such  soils'  may  be  infertile 
because  of  the  lack  of  potassium,  and  perhaps  phos¬ 
phorus,  and  other  elements.  This  diagram  will  put 
the  problem  of  keeping  up  the  organic  matter  in 
the  soil  in  its  proper  relation  to  other  treatments 
of  the  soil.  It  also  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that 
several  practices  serve  to  aid  in  keeping  up  the 
supply  of  organic  matter.  Stock  manure  is  only  one 
of  these.  The  next,  question  is,  whether  stock  ma¬ 
nure  is  the  cheapest,  most  convenient  and  most  ef¬ 
fective  means.  It  is  a  question  of  selection,  not  of 
absolute  necessity.  Stock  manure  must  take  its 
place  alongside  of  crop  residues,  aided  by  rotation 
with  legumes  and  green  manures,  and  not  as  their 
big,  overbearing  brother.  elmkk  o.  fippin. 
Cornell  University. 
Rabbits  vs.  New  York  Fruit  Growers 
NEW  YORK  farmers  are  interested  in  anything 
relating  to  the  fool  game  laws,  and  they  will 
surely  read  the  following  correspondence.  What  a 
situation  we  have  in  this  great  State!  The  farmers 
own  the  land  upon  which  these  wild  animals  and 
birds  feed  and  range.  The  farmers  feed  tin*  game 
and  suffer  serious  loss  to  their  property.  Yet  the 
laws  which  regulate  the  game  and  through  which 
the  farmers  suffer  loss  are  made  and  changed  to 
please  a  lot  of  sports  and  limiters  whose-  interests 
are  antagonistic  to  those  of  farmers!  It  looks  as 
if  we  were  living  in  the  middle  ages,  when  a  farm 
was  used  merely  to  provide  food  and  fresh  blood 
and  body  for  the  city  and  good  sport  for  the 
hunters. 
T.  II.  King  is  a  well-known  farmer  and  fruit 
grower  of  Central  New  York.  Like  thousands  of 
ether  fruit  growers,  he  lias  been  pestered  beyond 
endurance  by  wild  rabbits  which  are  “protected"  by 
the  State.  On  April  27  he  wrote  the  following  let¬ 
ter  to  the  Conservation  Commission: 
A  year  ago  last  Fall  several  parties  with  myself  ap¬ 
peared  before  the  Conservation  Com  mission  at  Water¬ 
loo,  asking  for  a  permit  to  use  ferrets  to  help  in  catch¬ 
ing  rabbits  that  were  damaging  our  fruit  trees  more 
or  less  every  Winter.  Our  request  was  not.  granted. 
1  stated  at  that  time  I  bad  used  a  ferret  in  a  small 
way  the  Winter  previous  as  a  help  in  protecting  my 
property.  The  Stale  Game  Commissioner  was  present 
at  that  hearing,  and  warned  me  not  to  tr.v  it  again,  as 
1  would  be  very  liable  to  be  caught  at  it.  and  the  pen¬ 
alty  would  not  be  a  light  one,  intimating  that  I  would 
be  watched. 
I  spent  last  Winter  in  California  and  was  notified 
while  there  that  the  rabbits  were  doing  lots  of  damage. 
On  m,v  return  home  I  went  over  tin*  orchards  and 
found  a  number  of  trees  in  different  planes  with  the 
bark  gnawed  off,  some  of  them  up  to  the  limbs;  two 
June  24,  1910. 
apple  trees  that  I  wouldn't  have  taken  $25  apiece 
for. 
Now  we  all  know  that  if  is  the  “game  clubs”  large¬ 
ly,  of  the  larger  towns  and  cities  that  are  having  en¬ 
acted  and  enforced  the  game  laws  as  they  now  are. 
We  have  an  "Honcxl  Fisherman's  Club"  in  Seneca 
County.  I  want  to  ask  you  a  straight  question,  "What 
would  you  do  if  you  bad  a  nice  orchard  or  some  fine 
bushes  in  a  city  yard,  and  found  the  rabbits  destroy¬ 
ing  them?”  Ft  seems  to  me  that  if  the  State  keeps  me 
from  protecting  my  property  the  State  ought  to  pay 
damages.  t.  h.  king. 
The  following  letter  was  received  in  reply.  We 
understand  by  this  that,  where  the  rabbits  are 
caught  injuring  the  trees  the  owner  or  agent  may 
shoot  or  trap  them  l»ut  they  cannot  he  “possessed" 
or  used  as  food.  We  understand  it  would  be  ille¬ 
gal  to  skin  them  and  use  or  sell  the  fur. 
Wo  bog  to  acknowledge  receipt  <ff  your  letter  of 
April  27th,  and  have  very  carefully  noted  the  con¬ 
tents  thereof.  In  reply,  we  beg  to  advise  you  that  sec¬ 
tion  of  the  conservation  law  provides  that  the 
owners  or  occupants  of  enclosed  or  occupied  farms  or 
lands  or  a  person  duly  authorized  in  writing  by  such 
owner  or  occupant  may  take,  except  by  use  of  ferrets, 
in  any  manner,  at  any  time  and  in  any  number  vary¬ 
ing  hares  and  cotton-tail  rabbits  which  are  injuring 
their  property.  Therefore,  if  the  rabbits  are  doing  in¬ 
jury  to  your  oreluird  yon  have  a  right  to  take  them  in 
any  manner,  except  by  the  use  of  ferrets.  There  is  no 
provision  in  the  law  Hint,  would  permit  this  Commission 
to  grant  you  a  permit  to  take  rabbits  doing  injury  to 
your  property  by  the  use  of  ferrets.  If  you  should  use 
ferrets  in  faking  rabbits  which  are  injuring  your  prop¬ 
erty  you  would  be  liable  to  prosecution.  Rabbits  taken 
under  this  provision  of  the  law  cannot  be  possessed  or 
used  for  food  purposes.  JOHN  t.  mc  cokmick, 
Deputy  Chief  Protector. 
On  receipt  of  this  letter  Mr.  King  wrote  again 
as  follows: 
Voms  of  May  2nd  in  reply  to  my  communication 
of  April  27th  at  hand  and  contents  noted.  There 
seems  to  he  no  other  way  under  our  conditions  to  rid 
our  premises  of  rabbits,  if  we  cannot  use  ferrets,  un¬ 
less  we  resort  to  poisoning  them.  Is  there  any  clause 
in  the  game  laws  that  would  stop  us  from  doing  that? 
We  notice  remedies  in  several  of  the  agricultural  pa¬ 
lters  for  destroying  woodchucks  by  putting  poison  in 
their  boles  and  stopping  them  up.  Please  advise. 
T.  U.  KING. 
This  brought  out  the  following  opinion  from  the 
protector.  You  will  see  that  the  use  of  ferrets  is 
prohibited  by  law  and  that  placing  of  poison  is 
also  an  offense. 
Replying  to  your  letter  of  May  4th,  we  beg  to  ad¬ 
vise  yon  that  we  are  informed  the  penal  law  of  this 
State  prohibits  the  placing  of  poison  for  the  killing 
of  any  wild  animal.  joiin  T.  mc  cokmick, 
Deputy  Chief  Protector. 
Any  busy  farmer  may  see  where  this  leaves  him 
with  the  rabbits.  And  all  because  a  comparatively 
few  hunters  want  to  kill  a  few  wild  animals. 
Every  Man  Should  Learn  a  Trade 
QUITE  a  few  of  our  “high-brows”  are  taking  a 
common-sense  practical  turn  when  they  urge 
the  schools  and  people  in  general  not  to  place  a 
discount  on  manual  labor.  We  need  more  of  it  all 
over  the  land,  and  the  country  would  by  no  means 
suffer  for  the  requirement  if  every  college  student 
had  to  carry  successfully  a  course  bearing  upon 
some  trade  before  he  would  he  granted  a  degree.  A 
few  years  ago  people  looked  upon  a  college  educa¬ 
tion  as  a  certain  "open  sesame”  t"  a  good  living  and 
were  startled  by  the  report  made  by  the  Y.  M.  C. 
A.  in  New  York  City  of  the  number  of  tramps  in 
the  great  metropolis  who  had  received  a  graduate’s 
degree  from  some  college  or  university. 
There  is  nothing  >o  fortunate  for  a  young  man  as 
Ihe  learning  of  a  trade,  no  matter  what  his  life 
pursuit  will  eventually  be.  If  he  aspires  to  work 
for  himself  and  the  world  by  making  purely  in¬ 
tellectual  application  of  bis  forces,  he  is  to  he  com¬ 
mended  for  his  ambition:  but  the  short  period  of 
time  that  it  would  take  him  to  gain  a  bread-winning 
knowledge  of  some  trade  would  not  be  thrown 
away,  and  such  knowledge  should  not  be  scorned. 
No  man  knows,  no  matter  liow  secure  he  seems  in 
Lis  vocation,  when  fate  may  toss  him  from  pros¬ 
perity  to  poverty  and  separate  him  permanently  or 
temporarily  from  His  chosen  work.  Then  would  his 
knowledge  of  some  manual  work  tide  him  over  a 
misfortune  or  supply  him  with  a  living  for  the  rest 
of  his  days,  and  then  would  his  thoughts  turn  more 
gratefully  than  ever  to  his  alma  mater  for  what  she 
had  given  him. 
Ohio.  F.  w.  PABST. 
R.  N.  Y.— No  question  about  the  value  of  a  good 
trade.  Thousands  of  educated  men  have  felt  the 
need  of  it.  We  have  in  mind  now  two  young  men, 
educated  at  great  colleges,  who,  are  unable  to  get 
work  because  there  is  call  only  for  trained  men  or 
common  laborers.  There  are  two  troubles  to  the 
scheme.  Some  parents,  usually  mothers,  seem  to 
think  their  own  children  should  never  do  anything 
but  professional  or  “literary”  work.  It  would  break 
their  heart  to  think  of  John  at  a  trade  or  Mary 
learning  housekeeping.  Then,  too,  many  of  the 
labor  unions  limit  the  number  <>f  apprentices  in  or 
dor  to  control  the  labor  supply. 
