IC34 
August 20, 1922 
grounds :is a unit. On farms already established, 
however, such changes may he accomplished little 
by little. If one has .a definite plan in view it can 
he carried out one section at a time without pre¬ 
judice. and such small improvements are much more 
likely to he undertaken than the radical reorganiza¬ 
tion whfcth would he necessary in carrying out the 
plans here proposed into full effect at once. 
Massachusetts. | pkok. 1 fuank a. wafcii. 
Compensation Laws and Co-operative 
Thrashing 
Twenty farmers have purchased a thrashing machine 
end tractor. We also do a little outside thrashing. 
Some of the group say that we are free from license <m 
tractor, and some say that we have to pay license, so 
we concluded to have you decide. Also we have to hire 
n man to run the machine and also oue to run the 
tractor. Would we have to insure them? i.. it. 
Pennsylvania. 
U NDER the Pennsylvania laws any tractor which 
is taken over the road must be licensed. These 
tractors are divided into two classes, .as follows: 
“First Class. Traction engines or tractors used ex- 
elusively for agriculture purposes, road grading and 
t ransporting the machinery and appliances which, when 
at rest, they operate with their own power; and ex¬ 
cluding engines used for hauling of freight of any kind. 
“Second Class. Traction engines or tractors used for 
freighting, which shall include till hauling upon the 
public highway, excepting such as is specified in the 
preceding paragraph. 
“A tractor drawing it thrashing outfit would be con¬ 
strued in the first class, and application should be made 
for registration. A fee of five ($5) dollars is charged." 
As regards liability for compensation insurance, 
this point has not yet been decided by the Compen¬ 
sation Board of Pennsylvania. General farm labor, 
where the business is general farming, is exempted, 
hut where any special branch of agriculture is made 
a specialty by ruling of the board or by the courts, 
then farm labor must be insured. No case just in 
this class has ever come before the Compensation 
Board thus far. 
Apple Growing in Pennsylvania 
| During a recent meeting at the Massachusetts Agri¬ 
cultural College Prof. 8. W. Fletcher of the Pennsyl¬ 
vania State College spoke of apple growing conditions 
in the Keystone State.] 
1 REGRET to report that our old friend, the 
Baldwin, is failing rapidly. Once the king of 
fruits in Pennsylvania, ir is now being displaced by 
the Stayman. McIntosh and several other sorts. The 
severe Winter of. 11)17 gave it a sharp set-back; some 
trees were killed outright and many more bad their 
lower branches killed. Added to this is the trouble 
with Baldwin spot, or bitter pit, especially on fruit 
in common storage. It lias been a shy hearer in 
recent years. Baldwin will continue to be a favorite 
in Northern and Western Pennsylvania, but it has 
lost its grip, and now yields first place in Hie pomol¬ 
ogy of the State to Stayman. The Baldwin has been 
our mainstay for a century: there are many who 
regret to see it superseded by its younger and more 
virile competitor. 
We witness without regret, however, the passing of 
the Ben Davis, it is a shipping variety, and has no 
place in the fruit list of a State that grows apples 
chiefly for local markets, and lienee must have sorts 
that are fir to eat Delicious is making new friends 
every year. Notwithstanding its defects, such as 
marked susceptibility to scab, a tendency to mold at 
the core, a loss of flavor or “flattening out” in coal 
storage, and sometimes lack of size, it has proved to 
he a vigorous, hardy, early bearing and productive 
variety of high quality and seems to be especially 
valuable for keeping in common storage fhr local 
markets. 
Pennsylvania is a State i»f sod apple orchards. 
Fully 95 per cent of our small semi-commercial farm 
orchards of one to four acres are in sod and pasture, 
and at least 50 per cent of our strictly commercial 
orchards are in sod mulch. When I went to Penn¬ 
sylvania from Virginia, six years ago, I could see no 
excuse for a real commercial apple grower having 
a sod orchard except on steep or rocky land, which 
could not he tilled, anyhow. I have changed my 
mind. Thousands of acres of the most successful 
apple orchards in the State are in permanent sod on 
tillable land. Undoubtedly this is due. in part, to 
the fact that we have an average rainfall annually 
of 45 in., which is well distributed. I am now con¬ 
vinced that: a very large proportion of our orchards 
ran be handled in sod to best advantage under the 
following conditions: The trees must he mature, 
not young; the land must be strong enough t<> pro¬ 
duce a good growth of grass: the grass must he rut 
at least twice a year and left as a mulch; the or¬ 
chard must he fertilized more heavily than tilled or¬ 
chards, and especially with nitrogenous fertilizer; the 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
mice must he el renin vented in one way nr another, 
and there are several good ways. 
One of tlm must interesting developments in recent 
years is the growing appreciation of Alfalfa as a 
permanent inter-crop in apple orchards: Several of 
The eat ipiestion is one likely to divide families and 
cause a neighborhood war. There are thousands jd 
unti-Ctlt people who are working for laws which will 
compel eat owners to license, their pc s. 1 > ij the other 
hand there are tens of thousands who regard the eat 
as one of the most useful farm animals. They will light 
it out, but little Jean Phillips, the Pennsylvania boy 
shown in the picture, is emphatically and ever on the 
side of the cats. lie knows their value. 
our best orchards have been in Alfalfa since they 
were planted, and never have been tilled. The mice* 
seldom bother an Alfalfa orchard, unless it litis be¬ 
gun to get grassy. 
The “Pilgrim Spirit” in Agriculture 
A year ago you gave a description of the tercentenary 
celebration at Plymouth, Mass., ami brought out 'he 
fact that what is called the “Pilgrim spirit*’ was a form 
nf ci.-operation. Do you think that spirit still exists 
with New England agriculturists? That is. co-operu- 
ijon. loyally to principle, willingness to face and over¬ 
come hardships. a. t.. w. 
Rhode Island. 
Y ES. we think so, hut it must he developed. As 
we have tried to point out. Hie success of the 
Plymouth colony was tine l<> a system of co-opera¬ 
tion which was made successful by a few strong 
leaders rather than by the rank and file. Physically 
and mentally man has developed greatly in the pas; 
10.000 years, hut in what we call “human nature" lie 
Gladiolus-—n Fine Flower for tin' llmiir Garden 
Fin. J/ '/d 
litis remained much the same. It is probably true 
that in some respects earliest man made a greater 
success of co-operation than his descendant of today, 
lie knew that he must group into families for de¬ 
fensive purposes, and lie had to submit to discipline 
whether lie liked it or not. The modern countryman 
lias found it hard to give up his individual charac¬ 
ter and submit to any such discipline as other in¬ 
terests employ. The Plymouth colony was on the 
brink of disaster a dozen times, and was always 
saved—not by the ordinary members of the commu¬ 
nity, but by a few determined men who held the 
company together by strong personal power and 
character, That is what we call “leadership,” and 
in any true co-operative organization, from a great 
army down to a single farm family, it is the Impor¬ 
tant part of the enterprise. In the ease of Plymouth 
the leaders wore all men larger than their surround¬ 
ings. In Europe these men would have ranked hign 
in intellect, and power. They chose to remain in the 
wilderness and give the best of their lives to an 
ideal of government. At times their task was harder 
than that of trying to drive a team of wild and 
stupid horses, but they held to the job and put it 
through, in the New England of today it is still a 
question of leadership. Tile rank and file of country 
people are more intelligent, yet with much tho same 
elements of human nature that were to he found in 
Colonial days. They tire still ready for great things. 
The question is. where are the great loaders? The 
criticism is frequently made that our system of agri¬ 
cultural education has not developed strong leader¬ 
ship. We will not discuss that now, but we think 
there are til Ibis time several strong men who are 
well fitted for leadership, and who will develop what 
our friend calls the Pilgrim spirit. If you ask what 
that is, we might give a dozen definitions. One is 
the power to he right and stand for the right even 
at the risk of being unpopular. 
The Market Slump in Philadelphia 
HE following statement from a Philadelphia 
commission house will show the condition of tic* 
fruit 
and 
vegetable markets 
in that city. This rep re- 
souls 
four days’ shipments i 
n early August. 
Has- 
lifts 
8/2 
215 
Corn . 
215 
$0.20 $43.00 
$43.00 
8/2 
2<; 
Green beans . 
26 
.50 $13.00 
18 
Limas . 
18 
1.00 18.00 
DO 
(*oru . 
00 
.20 18.00 
84 
F’ey peaches (Car- 
tnnn) . 
84 
.20 16.80 
- 65.80 
8/:; 
116 
Hand-picked Grav- 
en st <4 n apples, 
not sold. 
47 
Drop Gravenstein 
apples . 
47 
.10 $4.70 
28 
Drop apples. 
28 
.06 1.68 
IS 
Lunas . 
18 
.75 13.50 
19.88 
8/3 
206 
< *orn . 
.20 $4.40 
4.40 
8/4 
16 
Orange Pippins... 
16 
.06 $0.06 
23 
Drop apples . 
•>Q 
■O 
.06 1.38 
;:* 
No. 1 drop Graven- 
stein . 
38 
.10 3.SO 
n 
White apples . 
11 
.06 .66 
18 
Lima beaus. . . . . . 
IS 
.75 13.50 
17 
Hand-picked Pip- 
pins, not sold. 
No. 2 Gi-avens’n... 
•)•) 
.00 1.32 
• » 
•» 
Cull peaches . 
• > 
• i 
.10 ..‘*,0 
10 
Fancy peaches. . . . 
10 
.25 4.75 
12 
1 la lid-picked Grav- 
enStein. not sold. 
20.07 
8/5 
1 
Fancy peaches. . . . 
1 
.35 $0.35 
140 
Carman peaches.. 
140 
.25 37.25 
50 
I land-picked Grav- 
custom. not sold. 
♦ 
12 
Limn beans. 
• i 
• » 
.75 
r> 
.05 
4 
.50 
12 
7.50 
45.10 
$204.£5 
Commissions . 20.48 
$1S4.37 
<! Rest not sold. 
This means soo baskets sold for $1*1..“>7 net. You 
will notice that 180 baskets of corn were not sold. 
'I’his means a total loss, since the corn was not re¬ 
turned. There were also 102 baskets of apples un¬ 
sold. ruder ordinary conditions these should have 
brought at least 75 cents. It is doubtful if they will 
net 10 cents. 
It is claimed that a part of this fearful slump is 
due to the strike in the coal mining towns, which 
usually draw much of their early supply from South 
Jersey through Philadelphia. When the miners are 
at work these sections buy freely. This year, instead 
of buying full carloads, dealers in most of the small 
towns will take only u few dozen baskets. That is 
one reason given for the fearful slump in the Phila¬ 
delphia market. Our own markets are nearly as 
bad. even where workmen are quite well employed. 
In all our experience we have never seen anything 
quite like it. and the general public does not profit 
through lower prices except where peddlers hn.v 
cheap lots and sell for wlmt they can get. The regu¬ 
lar retail merchants it re holding up the price. 
/ 
