<88S 
43 
THE RURAL ftEW-YORRERi 
Jntmsfl SodetUz. 
WEST MICHIGAN FRUIT GROWERS’ 
SOCIETY. 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORT. 
Irrigation for fruit trees impractical , except 
on rare trees ; seedling peaches for a new 
orchard ; dry seasons fatal to noxious in¬ 
sect life; good nexus about the plum curculio 
axid Hessian fly; coddling moths don't like 
“smelling salts." 
The third annual meeting of this society 
was held in Paw Paw, VanBuren Co., begin¬ 
ning on the evening of December 7, and con¬ 
tinuing two days. Walter Phillips of Grand 
Haven was re-elected president, and G. H. 
LaFleur, of Allegan, secretary. A. H. 
Smith, of Paw Paw presented a valuable paper 
on “surface irrigation of fruit trees.” One- 
tenth of an inch of rainfall is equal to 40 hogs¬ 
heads of water per acre. He showed the fal¬ 
lacy of attempting to haul water from even a 
short distance, or to secure a sufficient amount 
for any orchard of considerable extent by 
wind-mill power. He had saved and matured 
the fruit to perfection on a few rare trees by 
copious applications of tepid water once a 
week. He kept his wind-mill running and 
hauled some water from the river, in order to 
fully test the practicability of surface irriga¬ 
tion. While the applications were very 
marked in their effect, by brightening up the 
foliage ita a few hours, the extent and volume 
of dry earth to be moistened compared to the 
amount of water taken up by the roots, is too 
great to give adequate returns for the labor. 
Mr. C. Engle is experimenting with seedling 
peaches. Upon being questioned at the meet¬ 
ing whether he would depend upon seedlings 
if he were to plant a new orchard, he said he 
would for such kinds as Hales, Crawford, 
or Hill’s Chili. These came quite true if the 
pits were selected from large blocks of trees 
of these varieties. The variations would be 
in their being a little earlier or a little later 
than the fruit on the original trees, and this 
was rather a merit in a market peach rather 
than an objection. His experience was that 
nine out of 10 would come true of the Craw¬ 
ford variety. One third of his whole orchard 
are seedling trees. He preferred them, as 
they are hardier, and if accidentally injured, 
or killed down by a hard winter, the sprouts 
are true, and will make a tree again very 
quickly. 
The evidence accumulates to prove the as¬ 
sumption that an extremely dry season is 
fatal to an increase of noxious insect life. A 
delegate from Oceana County, who is a large 
grower of plums, thinks the curculio will not 
be numerous another year in his section, from 
the fact that the plum fell and dried up before 
the grub was sufficiently mature to change 
into a living, moving, active life. He reports 
finding numerous larvae dried up with the 
fallen fruit, so quickly did the hot sand parch 
the plum after it fell. Generally the moist 
earth keeps the fallen fruit fresh until the 
necessary change is consummated. The Hes¬ 
sian fly, so extremely injurious and plentiful 
in Michigan in the spring, causing great loss 
to the wheat crop, almost entirely disappeared 
before the fall seeding began, and but very 
little damage is now feared until sufficient 
time has elapsed to breed anew supply, which 
will take a couple of years at least. L. H. 
Bailey, of South Haven, related his scheme 
for driving the coddling moth over info his 
neighbor’s orchard. He mixed half a tumbler 
of aqua ammonia with a pail of water, and 
sprayed his trees by night, when the enemies 
were alert and abroad. They couldn’t stand 
the perfume, and were prompted to seek pas¬ 
tures new and odorless. His neighbor was 
constrained to place some reliance on the effi¬ 
cacy of this new departure, for he never had 
so many wormy apples, nor his enterprising 
neighbor so few. a. c. c. 
furra 0£murim$. 
MACHINERY ON THE FARM. 
PROFESSOR A. J. COOK. 
Good machinery helps make the farmer in¬ 
dependent in his work-, a useful sewing 
machine; the Clark disc harrow; a hay 
loader px-ojitable; a farm mxll and a tread 
power found valuable; useful exercise fox- 
colts. 
In these days when farm help is so scarce 
and often so unreliable, it behooves every 
farmer to cast about for all those labor-saving 
helps that will aid to make him independent 
in his work. With what satisfaction we see 
our good wives work the excellent sewing 
machines, doing in hours what it would take 
days and even weeks to do by hand! I know 
of one of these good wives, that makes the 
sewing machine darn her carpets and the 
children’s clothes. This is not only done very 
quickly, but often so neatly that it is not easy 
to find the place of the old rent. This same 
wife has lately purchased a button-hole work¬ 
er, with which she can do at least four times 
as much work as she could in the same time 
by hand. It is nut only good economy, but 
often a wondrous comfort and satisfaction to 
so add these helps in the equipment of the 
home that “the girl” may be dispensed with. 
But it is not only indoors but out on the 
farm as well that machinery may be profit¬ 
ably added. A year ago I plowed up a piece 
of my boggy marsh land which had been very 
thoroughly drained. I bad done the same the 
two previous years and found that the prep¬ 
aration of the land in the spring for corn was 
a tremendous task. Last spring I read Mr. 
Terry’s account of the Clark disc harrow. I 
purchased one,and believe it almost paid for it¬ 
self this one season, and it is still as good as 
ever. It cut or mellowed the soil very quickly 
and without disturbing the sod. 
Governor Luce told me a year ago that he 
considered a hay loader as one of the very de¬ 
sirable additions to his farm machinery. One 
of our best Lansing farmers who has had a 
loader for 10 years says he values it rearly as 
highly as he does his mower. He considers 
his machine, after 10 years,really as good as 
new. So I purchased a loader, and I find it 
an excellent investment. It is hitched to the 
wagon in a moment. With heavy grass it 
takes it just as left by the tedder, otherwise 
it takes the bay from a small windrow and puts 
it onto the load as rapidly as two smart men 
can handle it. I am glad I purchased a Key¬ 
stone loader. 
One of the serious things on a farm is the 
going to mill. For us, to feed profitably, our 
grain must be ground. At least we feed our 
cattle at a great loss unless we do grind our 
grain. If we drive off four or five miles the 
delays, toll, etc. make the thoughtful farmer 
wonder if there is not a better way. I have 
looked about and found a mill which grinds 
12 to 15 bushels an hour, and grinds well. No 
more going to mill at our house. The work is 
done by colts which are the better for it, aud 
on stormy days, so there is little expense. 
But how about power? Steam was costly, 
dangerous and unhandy. Wind-power was 
unreliable. The wind might not blow when 
I wished to fill my silo. I investigated “tread- 
powers” and found one, a two horse-power, that 
I think entirely safe. It works well aud easily, 
is just the thing to steady colts and can be 
worked entirely under shelter. I use this 
power to grind all my feed, to cut my corn 
for the silo, and to cut my stalks and other 
coarse feed. It is a grand way to work in 
rainy days, and pleases me very much. We 
have done all our work this fall, cutting corn 
to fill a large silo, grinding feed and cutting 
coarse feed with a three and four-year-old 
Hamiltonian colt, each weighing about 1,130 
pounds, and they are all the better for the work. 
I can heartily recommend farmers to secure 
these four machines. Disc harrow, loader, 
tread-power and a good grinder. They will 
soon pay for themselves. 
The Rural is right as regards the differ¬ 
ent oats of one variety sold under different 
names, so far as my experience goes. I have 
tested 30 varieties of oats the last four or five 
years. Now I say that Welcome, Prize Clus¬ 
ter, Race Horse, Maplewood, White Star, 
Centennial, Bonanza, Badger Queen, aud 
Australian are all one and the same variety. 
As to wheats I have tested 40 varieties and 
found only three varieties to be one and the 
same kind. p. h. b. 
Tiffin, Ohio. 
XVxmtmt’s XDorK. 
CONDUCTED BY EMILY LOUISE TAPLIN. 
CHAT BY THE WAY. 
W HILE we are making all our New Year’s 
resolutions let us unanimously decide 
that we are going to be neat and cleanly 
housekeepers, but not fussy ones. Mrs. Fish¬ 
er refers very wisely to a prevailing error when 
she speaks of the housewife tiring herself out 
to prepare an elaborate dinner while her hus¬ 
band entertained the guest. It is a fallacy 
held by too many hostesses, that they best show 
their hospitality by wearing themselves out to 
cook over-elaborate meals. There may be 
people who>njoy it, but we should prefer an 
entertainment which we could not buy at any 
hotel for so many’dollars a day. It is hospi¬ 
tality of a’very primative type. We are of. 
ten inclined to compare this style of enter¬ 
tainment, with one of the most cordially offer¬ 
ed meals we ever sat down to. It was not an 
elaborate bill-of-fare, for it consisted simply 
of plain boiled potatoes washed down with 
buttermilk, but the comely Irish hostess off¬ 
ered it with a frank hospitality which was 
the essence of good breeding, and though we 
may not all appreciate her bill of-fare, we 
cannot fail to admire the simple courtesy 
with which it was offered to her guest. 
* * * 
There is another similar question which 
may be touched on here A recent newspaper 
article—we forget in what paper it first 
appeared—spoke of a reading circle in a 
country town, which broke up in consequence 
of the refreshments at the meetings. The 
society met in rotation at the members’ 
houses. At the first meeting, the hostess 
sensibly offered coffee and sandwiches. At 
the next meeting, coffee and sandwiches were 
supplemented by cake and fruit, the succeed¬ 
ing hostess added ice cream, and this con¬ 
tinued until the wealthiest member of the 
society gave an elaborate game supper. This 
was the proverbial last straw, and the society 
was broken up. There is a decided amount of 
snobbishness about this species of emulation, 
but most of us are guilty of it at some period. 
* * * 
We were looking recently at some of the 
antique ornaments dug up in Cyprus by Gen¬ 
eral Cesnola. Among them were bracelets 
identical with the bangles so commonly worn 
during the past two or three years: plain gold 
bands terminating in two snarling dogs’ heads 
brought close together, but not joined. They 
were “rolled plate,” too, for the bracelets 
consisted of copper heavily plated with gold. 
Strange, that we should be wearing trinkets 
copied from those worn before the Christian 
era. There were daggers and pins for wear¬ 
ing in the hair, whose counterpart may be 
seen every day. Assuredly there is nothing 
new under the sun, and this holds good in 
trinkets as well as in everything else. Last 
year everyone was displaying the Egyptian 
oudja, an odd-looking talisman containing the 
eye of Horus. This year we see more trink¬ 
ets modeled after flowers and other natural 
forms; what the next fancy may be no one 
may conjecture. 
* * * 
We hear so much nowadays about the pecu¬ 
liarities of working women that one may 
imagine they are a new species. It is just a 
little amusing to read the moralizing remarks 
of various writers—masculine, of course—as 
to the reason why we work. Candidly, we 
think that few women work for wages because 
they want to. They are all willing enough to 
work for love—but, alas! a good many among 
us have to work for money, too, and then we 
are accused of an unfeminine longing for free, 
dom from home ties. It is our candid opinion 
that there are few successful business women 
who do not feel that they would be more 
thoroughly happy in harmonious domestic 
life. But circumstances may throw them into 
active outside work, and it is both unjust and 
unfeeling to assert that they take this course 
from the desire to shirk the responsibilities 
of home life. 
WHICH CONCERNS WOMEN. 
MARY WAGER-FISHER. 
(Concluded.) 
I remember discussing the money question 
with Anaximander once, something hav¬ 
ing happened that led me to remark that I be¬ 
lieved that for wives to be obliged to ask for 
money of their husbands was a source of infin¬ 
ite annoyauce to them. He seemed greatly 
surprised and assured me that I must be mis¬ 
taken, that he could not possibly see how a 
woman could dislike to ask money of her hus¬ 
band! Of course, I put the question to him. if 
it was such an agreeable thing for women to 
do, how would men like to be similarly cir¬ 
cumstanced and ask their wives for every 
cent of money they wanted to spend, and 
probably be asked “What in the world do you 
want money for?” His reply was characterized 
by the vague indefinitene«s that lawyers em¬ 
ploy in evading a direct answer. We agreed, 
finally, to put the question to every woman 
who came as a guest in the house, until there 
was enough of cumulative testimony to serve 
as proof. The result was, that every woman, 
without exception, confirmed my conviction, 
and the discussion brought forth some very 
funny as well as pathetic stories of wives, in 
connection with their being obliged to ask for 
money. One woman was reported as having 
gone two full years, subsequent to her mar¬ 
riage, after spending what she had in her 
purse as a bride, with never a penny in her 
possession, and she would probably have con¬ 
tinued on in the same beggarly way if her 
husband had not noticed one day when she 
was going out, that her gloves were badly 
worn, and asked her why she did not buy a 
new pair! when she blurted out with tears, 
“I have no money.” It is easy to see how 
differently she would have felt toward him, 
and in her own heart, those two years, had 
her husband treated her as a partner, instead 
of a dependent. Most women will acknowl¬ 
edge that such action on the part of the wife 
is absolutely silly, and even unjust toward 
the husband, and still women continue to 
hate to ask for money, and probably will to 
the end, as they continue to work on in a self- 
abnegating and self-effacing way, knowing 
all the time, in case of their death they can¬ 
not dispose of a farthing of their earnings 
that has gone into the farm, by will, and that 
every dollar may be alienated from their chil- 
dren and transferred to a new wife and her 
progeny as happens again and again. 
Undoubtedly, work is one of the greatest of 
blessings, and the race would be miserable 
without the resorces of employment. There 
is pleasure in accumulation, to gather luxur¬ 
ies about one, to see the debts liquidated, the 
last payment made on the mortgage—enough 
surplus money in bank to send the children 
to better schools, to buy long-coveted books, 
an easy chair, an engraving or a pleasui - e car¬ 
riage. To me there is no poetry and little that 
appeals to the deeper and tenderer sympathies 
in the abundance of wealth. The money goes 
as it comes, and the surx-oundings stand for 
so much money simply. But in the homes of 
small resources everything has a value far be¬ 
yond its money cost. Every article of cloth¬ 
ing, of furnitui-e aud even most of the foods, 
have been earned by the family and they 
stand for bone and sinew, for faith and hope 
and economy and long desire, aud they mean 
more and are worth more to the possessors 
than are the costliest wares to the milliouaii-e. 
The curse of it, or the black side of it, as the 
Rural forcibly designates the dark side, lies 
beyond the domain of simple duty over in the 
realm of abuse aud hai’d hits and injustice. 
Look at the holidays of the farm. Take 
Sunday for instance, and what is it to the 
average farmerine as a day of rest compared 
to what the farmer himself enjoys? How 
few of the daily tasks are not required on 
Sunday. And so with Thanksgiving, aud 
Christmas and the Fourth of July: usually an 
increase of work in the way of festive dinners. 
Even the rainy days have their terror, in 
view of the mud that is canned in to the 
house on heedless boots, and was there ever a 
vehicle of dirt invented equal to the boots and 
shoes of farm men and boys, to say nothing 
of the sticks and straws and litter that ride in 
on their clothing! Where one man protects 
himself with an all-covexfing smock-frock, and 
slips out of it and into a clean pair of shoes 
for the house, there are fifty who do nothing 
of the kind. It seems rarely to enter into the 
noddle of the average farm boy that neatness, 
oi-derliness, tidiness, politeness and regard for 
the feelings of others, are each and all the 
adjuncts of manliness and the attributes of a 
gentleman. Farmers’ sons, say from 10 to 20, 
are far too often boors in their manners, 
slovenly, careless, impei-tinent to their mothers 
and sisters, rude, l-ough, taking ill care of 
their clothes or their rooms, and well meriting 
the treatment Caifiyle thought should be in¬ 
flicted upon all boys under the age of nine 
teen—to be put. and kept, under a bari’el! 
And some of their fathers are no better, for 
“like father like son” holds tx-ue with peculiar 
tenacity in the way of training and example. 
For the mother to contend single-handed 
against such a foi*ce, is a. discouraging under¬ 
taking. I have lately been told of one Penn¬ 
sylvania farmer who gave his daughtei - s the 
advantages of a superior education, and these 
cultivated girls, in harvest time, had not only 
to prepare and carry a forenoon luncheon, 
but also another in the afternoon to the gang 
of hired men in the haxwest field. For the 
afternoon repast, they baked griddle cakes, 
buttered and served them hot, until the men 
sent - in word that they wanted something 
better than hot buttered griddle cakes! 
It would appear from all the pros and cons 
of the “hired man” question, that has appeared 
in. the Rural, that boarding and lodging 
