354 
May 9 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
crop in Virginia, but think some of the quick-growing 
northern flint varieties will mature if planted by 
June 1. The action of nitrate of soda is to delay 
ripening rather than to hasten it. We have delayed 
the ripening of tomatoes by at least two weeks by 
using nitrate of soda just as the flowers were setting. 
By using nitrate on early potatoes we have kept them 
growing so long that they ranked with a mediu^m 
early variety in ripening. Nitrogen stimulates the 
plant into active growth and when it is present in ex¬ 
cess of other elements the plant will be slower to 
form seed or fruit. The nitrate will quicken the 
growth of stalk, but the ear will not form as quickly 
as where acid phosphate is used. Phosphoric acid 
is the element which controls seed formation more 
than others. You will do better to use a fertilizer 
high in phosphoric acid if you want grain. 
Corn on an Old Meadow. 
I wash to plant corn on an old meadow, and have no 
manure, but can get hard-wood ashes and a low-grade 
fertilizer, nitrogen two per cent, phosphoric acid eight, 
potash two (no high-grade sold here). Shall I manage to 
get a good crop? The meadow is old. perhaps 10 to 15 
years without plowing, grass all run out, soil gravelly 
loam. Other parts of field respond quickly to manure and 
ashes. We cut two large crops of clover last year. 
Northville, N. Y. M. k. w. 
We would plow that old meadow and broadcast at 
least one ton of unleached wood ashes—harrowing 
until the surface is fine. Then plant the corn and use 
25(1 pounds of that fertilizer in the hill. The old mea¬ 
dow is rich in nitrogen, but this is not available. The 
lime in the a.shes will make it more so, and the ashes 
will also supply potash. We advise the use of the 
fertilizer because it supplies a little extra nitrogen 
and the phosphoric acid. 
JOHN VOAK, A VETERAN READER. 
We take great pleasure in showing at Fig. 126 a 
picture of John Voak. of Yates Co.. N. Y. Mr. Voak 
has been a reader of Tife R. N.-Y. from the very first 
issue. He served as agent for the paper even before 
this first issue, as the following letter from D. D. T. 
.Moore, dated January 3. 1850, will show. 
TT^Tzry 
Mr. Voak w-as 30 years old when this letter was 
written. He has read every number of The K. N.-Y. 
from one to 2780, and now tells us that the paper has 
fully kept pace with the years and is as clean and 
helpful as ever. Mr. Voak sends us the following 
sketch, which will interest many of our readers: 
“My grandfather, John Voak, after whom I am 
named, came to this part of the country about 1796 
from New Jersey. His first purchase of land was 40 
acres, on which I now reside, for $4 per acre. His 
first cabin was covered with bark and had a ground 
floor. Bears, wolves and Indians were plenty. He 
afterward purchased land for $1 per acre until he had 
about 700 acres. His family consisted of 10 children. 
Two died in youth; the others were married and set¬ 
tled on these farms about him. Nearly all of my 
uncles and aunts lived to old age; one uncle died 
in his ninety-ninth year; one in his ninety-third, and 
one aunt nearly 88. My grandfather’s brother had 
come to this country before he did, and was about one 
mile from here. A few other pioneers had settled in 
this part of the country, but neighbors were not near. 
The wmrk of clearing the farms of the heavy timber 
was a task which required a great amount of mus¬ 
cular energy, and years to accomplish. They had lit¬ 
erally to hew their way with the ax into the forests, 
which were of heavy timber of nearly all kinds; some 
pine but no hemlock. If we had some of the trees 
that were cut and burned to clear up the land for 
cultivation it would be worth considerable now. 
“The first log barn was thatched with straw. The 
floor of the barn was made of split timbers; the flat 
sides and edges straightened and laid on timbers. 
There was but little of the work of the sawmill about 
it. The door hinges were of wood. The doors and 
the gable ends above the logs were of boards. Thrash¬ 
ing was done with the flail, or by putting the grain 
on the floor and making the cattle or horses tread 
it out by driving them around, stirring and turning 
the bundles until the grain w'as separated from the 
straw. The grass for hay was all cut by hand with 
the scythe, tedded out with the fork and when dry 
enough raked w'ith hand rakes and pitched into wind¬ 
rows and put up into bunches or loaded from the 
windrows. It was my business when a boy to “rake 
after’’ as they loaded the hay—all hand labor; no 
mowing machines and no horse rakes, no horse forks. 
The grain was cut with the hand sickle or grain 
cradle; bound in bundles by hand. We worked on the 
eight-hour plan; eight hours in the forenoon and 
eight in the afternoon, and sometimes as long as we 
could see. The changes since that time have been 
very great and wonderful.” 
A REVIEW OF THE INSTITUTE SEASON. 
Suggestions lot the Future. 
Part II. 
I walked out from one meeting and met a farmer 
who was working a farm upon shares. He said he 
bad been too busy that day to come to the institute. 
He cited, however, his ability barely to make ends 
JOHN VOAK, A VETERAN SUBSCRIBER. Fig. 126. 
meet, and that with the hardest kind of work. Every 
appearance indicated the truth of his statement. He 
was keeping a small dairy, but said it was not profit¬ 
able. The stable stood up from the ground so that in 
cald weather manure froze; appearances generally 
were along this line, and of course profit could not 
come. He said there was not much use in attending 
the institute, as there was nothing practical to be 
gained. I labored with this man for half an hour, 
giving some results from careful feeding and warm, 
light barns that exceeded June production, and when 
I finally told him that when we wanted to get the 
greatest production from a cow we did it in January 
instead of June his appearance was one of extreme 
doubt. He came to the next session and, I hope, se¬ 
cured some points of value. These are the men the 
State should reach. Platform eloquence will not alone 
do it; they must have close personal contact. We are 
confronted therefore by two propositions, one to keep 
pace with the progressive men who are, many of 
them, capable of imparting the best of information, 
and the other class Who as yet fail to appreciate the 
first principles. There is only one way that appears 
open to me; hold one meeting perhaps in each county 
or at central points easily accessible to which the 
leading and most thoughtful men will go, and then 
hold a two or perhaps a three-day meeting of the 
highest possible type, principles and advanced meth¬ 
ods alone being discussed and elaborated. Here use 
freely our scientific teachers and experimenters, to¬ 
gether with specialists from the farms, w'ho are daily 
practicing only what they teach. Then go into the 
more remote sections away from the railroad if neces¬ 
sary with a small force. Perhaps occasionally one 
man could hold two sessions, not with an idea of 
making speeches, but of leading a discussion, holding 
the audience strictly to a thoughtful line of work; a 
kind of work not as exhausting to the institute men 
as making regular addresses. These light meetings 
would be held at small cost, which would make more 
of them possible, and also leave more money for the 
central or higher school meetings. Is there any more 
reason why primary and high-school institute work 
should be merged into the same meeting and the same 
hour, than to do away in our public schools with 
grading. Why not have graded institute meetings? 
I think there is one uniform standing criticism; 1 
know personally I am open to it, and it will apply to 
most of the men whom I have met; a lack of charity. 
I will use a personal illustration, and if any institute 
man happens to read this maybe he can recall a simi¬ 
lar experience. For four years I have been quite care¬ 
fully studying the principles of ventilation, which at 
first seemed quite simple, but something new comes 
up frequently which qualifies previous knowledge, and 
yet I feel impatient very often when I do not succeed 
in making a clear understanding from a rapid speak¬ 
ing with little or no repetition lasting from 15 minutes 
to a half hour. I think speakers fail through a mis¬ 
apprehension of their proper attitude towards the au¬ 
dience; that they are there to make speeches and 
not to instruct. Elaborating and explaining a point, 
repeating over and over again if necessary, will be 
far more effective than oratory. Speakers as a rule 
like applause. It usually follows a speech, but never 
follows pure instruction. 
Another decidedly weak point is the almost com¬ 
plete absence of note books on the part of the audi¬ 
ence. Formulas, recipes and facts are given that 99 
out of 100 cannot remember. Two suggestions may 
be offered; one is that the conductor insist upon the 
bearers taking notes, even if he stops the speaker in 
the midst of an address; another scheme would be for 
the State to furnish a given number of small note¬ 
books or to make it mandatory upon the local people 
to furnish them. Letters of inquiry frequently fol¬ 
low' asking for the formula or recipe given at the 
meeting, or often at the close of a session these same 
questions are asked. 
Another new feature in our State this Winter was 
the cooperation of the Department of Public Instruc¬ 
tion, taking up the question of rural school improve¬ 
ment, and with the State Engineer’s Department dis¬ 
cussing good roads and the present State laws gov¬ 
erning them; two most fruitful subjects which I 
should say from a brief observation could be repeated 
to our advantage. I am sure it is not out of place to 
mention the hearty cooperation between the institute 
and Grange. I feel that so long as the policy of the 
Grange is educational we are bound to render it all 
the assistance consistent with our work, because every 
institute worker knows full well that many of our 
meetings would be blank failures without Grange 
push in their respective localities. Volumes might be 
w'ritten concerning this work, which is now carried 
on in 44 States and Territories, holding annually 
about 2,300 meetings, spending by direct appropria¬ 
tion $196,000 and attended by 709,000 people. To show, 
however, how small comparatively is the effort, we 
might add that only seven per cent of those engaged 
in agricultural pursuits attend these meetings. We 
are therefore only upon the skirmish line in this 
great field of agricultural extension work. 
H. E. COOK. 
A YOUNG MAN AND A FARM. 
It suiiely is not a question of finding something to 
do and getting good pay for it that sends so many 
boys from the farm to the factory. Farmers are 
everywhere looking for help and are paying more for 
it than most factory hands receive when board, regu¬ 
lar w'ork, and numei'ous other advantages are taken 
into the account. It appears to be a question of pre¬ 
ference, and the reason for the usual preference for 
the factory does not, in most cases, appear to be well 
founded. I know one young man who remained on 
the farm, although his circumstances were not the 
most encouraging. He felt that he must launch out 
into something, but, being diffident, it was hard for 
him to go into a strange family to work and to board. 
Naturally one w'ould expect him to go to some factory 
in a nearby village, as other boys have done, where 
there are plenty of opportunities to get employment. 
But he said the other boys were saving no money; 
besides, he wanted to be a farmer some day, and it 
was best for him to stay on the farm. He hired out 
to a farmer, not a very good one either, hut he was 
determ.ined to stick, and stick he did. After about 
two years of this he bought a farm for $2,500, got 
a very good one, and paid in about $200. He has been 
working out ever since in one way or another. He 
has just bought 50 acres more land to go adjoining 
with his original farm. The farm is rented on shares 
to a good farmer, and he helps plan the work. He is 
saving more money than he could by working the 
farm himself, has an incentive as well as a preference 
to save his earnings, and, as he says, he is learning 
how differently men manage their farms. Some day 
he may, for ought I know, get the housekeeper and 
run the farm himself. 'This may not be the ideal way 
for a young man to do, but it is not a very had one. 
