The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
935 
are likely to strike a snag. By the time January 
comes the Macs are soft and over-ripe and, anyway, 
no matter how sound, they are out of vogue, and the 
trade will have none of them. Their cry then is 
Paid wins, and Baldwins they will have. Take last 
season as an iustanee. In October the trade wanted 
Macs quick at $10, hut later the market slumped, 
and anyone was lucky after that to unload them at 
any fair price. I was interested in o part car of 
McIntosh that was kept too late. In January we 
finally induced a buyer to take them at 50 cents 
under the market price of Baldwins, provided we 
would fill the car out with A Grade Baldwins lit 
25 cents under the market! Even then he kicked 
on the McIntosh, claiming they were too ripe. 
You see, therefore, that the season of McIntosh 
is past by the time the trade is ready to take Bald¬ 
wins. I do not believe there is a New York apple 
that can ever take the place of Baldwin for supply¬ 
ing the midwinter trade. Certainly I am not going 
to consent to give Baldwin up till it shows greater 
indication of deserting its post of leadership than it 
has done so far. While this should have been the 
throw on an enormous sling load of hay. When the 
load has come to the point where two horses can no 
longer pull it we bring the tractor into play and 
start to the barn, dragging one or two of the loaded 
ricks. About four ricks are required to handle the hay 
quickly, the tractor returning two of the empty ricks 
from the barn as it hauls in two of the loaded ricks. 
PUTTING IN THE MOW.—At the barn the sling 
is attached to the hay lift and is drawn into the 
mow, the same as when a wagon load is unloaded. 
The advantage in using this type of tick is that it 
requires one loader and reduces the amount of pitch¬ 
ing in the field. The tractor, because of its speed, 
can make many trips to and from the barn, hence 
ieducing the time as compared with team and wagon 
in hauling hay from the field into the barn. This 
type of harvesting is also used to advantage in mak¬ 
ing wild hay or marsh hay. This hay is generally 
very slippery, and could not be conveniently pitched 
onto a high wagon. It is also very heavy, and would 
require a lot of help if it is pitched onto a wagon 
and hauled any considerable distance. We have 
seen such ricks used, too. to good advantage where 
I sowed Grimm Alfalfa on one meadow that udjoins 
one of the weed lots, and I do not want to let this get 
all these new seeding** this year. Is there any way to 
compel him to cut and destroy these weeds? I "am tired 
of this neglect and carelessness. farmer. 
New York. 
E have many questions much like this one. The 
complaint is quite general, in nearly every 
township may he found weedy farms from which all 
surrounding lands are seeded. In New York State 
there are no laws which compel a landowner to cut 
or remove such weeds, except as they grow on the 
highway. Section 54 of the highway law makes it 
the duty of landowners situated on the highway to 
“cut and remove the noxious weeds growing within 
the bounds of the highway, fronting such lands, at 
least twice in each year—once in the month of June 
and once in the month of August.” In case the land- 
owner fails to cut these weeds the town superin¬ 
tendent shall have the work done and the cost shall 
be assessed against the owner. 
Beyond that we can find no laws which would 
compel a man to keep the weeds down. A good 
neighbor ought to he willing to mow such weeds in 
crop year for most Baldwin orchards in this neigh- hay is baled out of the field. a case such as is given in this letter. It is clearly 
borhood, I attach no Importance to their apparent THE ADVANTAGE OF SLINGS.—In handling a case where one man causes serious damage to 
failure. There was doubtless some ah- another by letting such weeds ripen. 
normal cause, and I fully expect to see 
Baldwin “come hack” strong another 
year. I might say that in many cases 
McIntosh and certain other varieties 
are also shy where we had a right to 
expect a crop. caul m. coates. 
Niagara Co., N. Y. 
If equal property da mage was done in 
other ways there would be a clear case 
for damages. 
In the ease of the plant disease 
known as black knot and the insect 
known as tent caterpillar the agricul¬ 
tural law attempts a form of regula¬ 
tion. Here is the section : 
Section 304-a. — Prevention of the 
spread of insect pests and fungus diseases 
among trees and plants. The tent cater¬ 
pillar. the forest tent caterpillar and the 
fungus known as black knot are hereby 
declared to be public nuisances. When 
owners of property within this State 
shall report to the Commissioner of Agri¬ 
culture that an outbreak of the pests 
knowu as tent caterpillar, forest tent 
caterpillar or the fungus known as black 
knot exists, or wlteu said Commissioner 
or this disease is damaging trees or plants 
he shall cause an investigation to bo 
made. If it is found, ns a result of such 
investigation.', that there is reasonable 
ground to belifcte that such caterpillar- 
or fungus disease wilt spread and do 
damage to trees, plants or other vegeta¬ 
tion, the Commissioner of Agriculture 
may order the owners to destroy such 
caterpillars and such diseased trees and 
the owners shall comply with such order 
under the direction or surveillance of the 
Commissioner or his duly authorized rep¬ 
resentative, and no damage shall be 
awarded or paid to any owner of trees or 
plants necessarily destroyed by virtue of 
the work performed in carrying out the 
provisions of such order. 
Mr. G. A. Atwood, Director of the 
Bureau of Plant Industry connected 
with the State Department, says about 
this law: 
About 1912 an attempt was made by 
the then Commissioner to forbid the 
keeping of trees affected with black knot 
and to compel everybody in the Estate to 
” J destroy tent caterpillars. A< the former 
is a widely distributed disease, and the 
latter a native insect, widespread, it 
could not be expected that sufficient money 
could be Obtained for Carrying out the 
purpose of that order, therefore we hit upon the plan 
of localizing these two difficulties and a statute was 
passed which provides that if a person com plains, for 
instance, that his neighbors are not keeping black knot 
cut from rheir orchards, the Department now can in¬ 
vestigate the matter, and if thought wise they can order 
the cleaning up of the black knot involved. The same 
is true with the tent caterpillar. 
“These two provisions of law, if applied to the con¬ 
trol of weeds, it seems to me, would produce good re¬ 
sults along a line which possibly should have been taken 
up years ago.” 
Slings to Take the Hag Chan from the Wagon. Fig. 402 
A Hag-loader Saves Much Hand Pitching. Fig. 403 
any kind of hay that is put into the barn we feel 
that the use of slings is a great advantage. Some¬ 
times slings are really brought into use to handle 
grain bundles, such as oats and wheat. There is 
some little disadvantage iu using slings in hay with 
the lmy-loadcr. due to the fact that it is necessary 
to stop twice during tiie load and spread the slings 
over the load. However, the ease of handling over¬ 
balances any lost time for the time required to 
CLOVER AND ALFALFA.—In order to prevent 
loss from clover and Alfalfa it has been our exper¬ 
ience iu handling these hays to rake them soon 
after cutting, while yet rather tough, and put the 
hay into well-built heaps so that they will be able 
to shed the water. These heaps should be built as 
high as possible and not very thick through, so that 
the water may be kept out of the heap as much as 
possible. Handling the hay iu this manner it is 
possible to cut, rake and heap 10 or 15 acres before 
it is necessary to haul to the barns. When the hay 
is cured sufficient in the heap to be taken into the 
barn the tractor may bo again used to good advan¬ 
tage. Our plan is to take a light hay rick and put 
under it two runners made from green saplings. 
The runners are smooth on the bottom, so that they 
will slide along easily on the sod. In the field a 
team will handle one of these ricks easily, dragging 
it from place to place, until a fairly large load is 
placed upon it. On the bottom of each rick is placed 
a bay sling, (hie man is given a team and a rick 
in the field: the rick being low, one man can quickly 
spread the slings over the load of hay. As a rule 
we feel that farmers allow their hay to get too dry 
before putting it away. Tills means that many of 
the leaves are lost, and that the palutability is de¬ 
creased. The old adage that “hay is ready for the 
mow when it is possible to wring water out of a 
small bundle of hay by twisling it" seems to work 
pretty good. Wet lmy should not he put into a barn, 
but we have never experienced any serious difficulty 
in putting in clover hay when it is in a tough stage, 
between the point where the dew and water is evap¬ 
orated and where breaking of the hay begins when 
trampled over. c. m. baker. 
Ohio. 
The Weed Nuisance and the Law 
There is a farm that adjoins mine where weeds are 
allowed to stand and grow year after year. Meadow 
land if is. not mowed jusl for carelessness and neglect 
of the owner. What can I do to compel him to cut these 
weeds? My meadows are just over ihe fence. I have to 
plow and reseed to keep these weeds down on ni,\ farm 
on account of these weeds ou his land. Just this Spring 
Starting in Poultry 
Two years ago I left the city for the country. I am 
working on the property of a business man. I am mar¬ 
ried. and as I like the chicken business my wife and I 
made up a plan how to go about it. Save" money, until 
we could buy at our opportunity, for cash, the well- 
known 1ft acres and a little house and barn. Then 
keep on working and start off little by little to raise 
chickens, sell eggs, etc. Now for two years 1 have 
been reading farm papers and books on poultry, and 1 
have a fair idea of the "for and against” of chicken 
farming. Market for my produce I will make for my¬ 
self. Some people told me. "If you want to start a 
business, no matter what, you’ve got to have capital.” 
I think where other people started w ith next to nothing 
and got there, 1 can do the same. But one thing I am 
afraid of. and that is to make costly mistakes. Exper¬ 
ience is sometimes a very expensive teacher. Would n 
short course in Cornell or Rutgers do me any good? 
Do they reach you to become a practical poultry man? 
Do they let its do it ourselves? Theory I have plenty, 
here right in the house, but to pick up a chicken and 
tell whether she is a layer, cuponizing. killing and pick¬ 
ing. and to run an incuhator. that is what I need. How 
much w ill nty expenses be? It will take quite a bite out 
of our savings, but if it Is worth the money I will do it. 
Working "ii a poultry plant will do me. I think, not 
much good, as it would take me too long to get the hting 
of things. Plants are not alike, and they do not want 
