578 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
August 15 
Various other ways might be suggested, as ihe grow¬ 
ing of wood, hay. Alfalfa, and the like. 
We shall also take up the whole question of coun¬ 
try roads, giving instruction by experts and actually 
making pieces of experimental road. The United 
States Department of Agriculture is to cooperate in 
this work. 
It is important to bear in mind that all these sub¬ 
jects afford a means of reaching the people them¬ 
selves, as well as of solving agricultural problems. 
It was the old idea that there are certain set subjects 
that must be employed when we educate a man. We 
now believe that any subject in which a man is in¬ 
terested is capable of being put in pedagogic form, 
and to be made the means of educating him. A per¬ 
son should be educated in terms of hiis daily life,— 
in plants, soils, crops, stock, If he is a farmer. 
Where there is one person who is interested in clas¬ 
sics, there are a thousand persons who are inter¬ 
ested in potatoes, and cattle, and fruit, and chick¬ 
ens. We must reach these persons by means of 
potatoes, and cattle, and fruit, and chickens. The 
College of Agriculture stands for the common, plain 
farmer, and the subjects with which he works. Its 
effort Avill be to reach the last man on the last 
farm. 
Another line of effort is to help the teacher in the 
country school to teach the outdoor and farm sub¬ 
jects. Therefore, a special teacher’s course has been 
established in the College of Agriculture, to give 
instruction in nature-study, agricultural topics, 
country life subjects. We have great hopes of this. 
^Yknt about ihe building for th-e College of Agri- 
cult we? 
The College is not housed. Its work is done in 
small, detached rooms, that are scattered over a 
territory of more than a mile in length. Some of 
these rooms are in cellars. The loft of a private 
barn is being fitted up to accommodate some of the 
nature-study work. Nearly 50 dairy students were 
refused admittance last Winter for lack of accom¬ 
modations. The number of students will largely 
increase as soon as suitable buildings are provided, 
and the extension work and other enterprises will 
be greatly intensified and benefited. 
The Federal funds cannot be used for buildings. 
The buildings, therefore, must be provided by gifts 
or by the State. Some years ago the State erected a 
dairy building, which is of the greatest service, but 
this is already overcrowded. This is the only build¬ 
ing that the State ever erected for the College of Agri¬ 
culture. Most of the States have separate buildings 
for the agricultural departments or colleges. New 
York, one of the leading agricultural States, is one of 
the poorest provided for in this respect. 
Can the College of Agriculture do angthing to help 
New Twk mate keep up vyith the West in agricul¬ 
tural production? 
Most certainly. All increased agricultural pro¬ 
duction is a question of education. The agricultural 
college and the experiment station are simple mat¬ 
ters of investment. All the thriving agricultural 
States of the Middle West are investing liberally in 
agricult iral education. The farmers there are de¬ 
manding that their interests be looked 
after as liberally and extensively as 
other interests are. They a)sk that 
funds be given in order that special 
agricultural interests—as cranberries, 
tobacco, stockbreeding—be provided for 
in the way of teaching and investi¬ 
gating. Nothing is more evident in the 
new place that agriculture is taking 
in our civilization than the fact that 
the colleges and experiment stations are 
rapidly becoming its leaders. A remark¬ 
able company of competent men is add¬ 
ing knowledge, resourcefulness and dig¬ 
nity to it. The teacher of agriculture is 
no longer a “book farmer.” The old 
academic way of teaching agriculture 
is passing forever. The whole method 
and point of view have changed within 
10 years. 
Wisconsin has expended over $300,000 on the build¬ 
ings of its College of Agriculture, and yet Wisconsin 
vs tenth in the Union in value of farm property, while 
New York is fourth. Illinois has two acres of floor 
space in the new^ buildings of its College of Agricul¬ 
ture—probably the most extensive lay-out in the 
world. More buildings are to be erected, one of them 
to be devoted to teaching the construction and use of 
farm machinery (a subject taught only theoretically 
a few years ago). The last Legislature of Illinois ap¬ 
propriated $270,000 to extend the work of the College 
of Agriculture, to be expended during two years. This 
includes $25,000 for the beef, pork, mutton and horse 
interests; $10,000 for the corn growers; $25,000 for 
soil investigations; $10,000 for the orchard interests, 
and $15,000 for the dairy industries. These funds 
will greatly stimulate these various occupations. 
Pennsylvania, neighbor of New York and ranking 
next below it in value of farm property, has now been 
assured by its T>egislature of a $250,000 agricultural 
college building, this being considerably more than 
the college asked for, and funds for other purposes 
were appropriated. This great building is now to be 
begun, $100,000 having been appropriated last Winter 
for the dairy part of it. The Pennsylvania people 
now say that they will have a “home for the agricul¬ 
tural departments of the college equal if not superior 
to that possessed by any institution in the United 
States.” Indiana. Nebraska, Ohio, Iowa, Minnesota, 
Michigan and other States are ahead of New 
SINGLE GATE TOST OF !<TONE. Fio. 218. 
York in providing a home for the agricultural col¬ 
lege. 
Yet New York, in spite of its great city popula¬ 
tion and its hills, stands only below Illinois, Iowa 
and Ohio in the total value of its farm property. It 
leads the States in milk, butter and cheese, in vege¬ 
tables, in forest products, in flowers and plants, in 
small fruits, in beans, in nursery products, in hops. 
It had a rural population in 1900 of 1,625,895. It has 
226,720 farms. It has the best markets. It has the 
greatest wealth. It is the Empire State. 
All these great enterprises inspire, dignify and 
stand for the permanent progresis of agriculture. 
They inject a new spirit into it. The time has come 
when real progress is impossible without these insti¬ 
tution's. 
Take away all the agricultural colleges and ex¬ 
periment stations and the men who are devoting 
their lives to the farmer’s problems—where then 
would we be? The great West is seeing the signifi¬ 
cance of all this. The day of small things is past. 
CURING COW PEA HAY, 
In answer to one who wants to know how to cure 
cow-pea hay I will give him the benefit of my experi¬ 
ence and that of some others with this crop. When 
living in Virginia I grew several crops of both cow 
peas and Soy beans. The inquirer has these two 
mixed in his field, which may be a good plan, but I 
have never tried them so. The Soy beans will doubt¬ 
less hold up the peas somewhat, but this would seem 
to me not very needful, except with a very rank 
growth. I found that planting both these crops in 
rows 21/^ feet apart and either in drills or hills, and 
cultivating two or three times is decidedly better than 
broadcast. It takes less than half the seed and the 
growth is stronger and with less weeds. When the 
first cow-pea pods are well ripened is the time to cut. 
Any good mowing machine will cut two rows with 
ease. The dew should be well dried out before it is 
started. A lot of poles about 10 feet long should be 
provided, and their butt ends sharpened. When 
enough of the field is cut over to begin raking go at 
it at once, or one may let the forage wilt awhile. Set 
the poles near the windrows and at such distance 
apart as will be needed to hold the hay. Dig holes 
one spade deep and make a hole in the bottom of each 
with a bar to receive the poles. Then fill up the holes 
and nail on two narrow cross pieces about four feet 
long a foot from the ground, and at right angles to 
each other. Pile the forage on these cross pieces, and 
as high as can be done with a fork. The little stack 
should not be over four or five feet wide, and brought 
to a point at the top. A little grass on top if handy 
will shed water better than the peavines alone. This 
will cure perfectly from bottom to top in about two 
or three weeks, when it should be hauled into the 
barn. Curing cow-pea hay on the ground is a very 
difficult job. If it rains on it there may be much loss. 
My experience in curing it so has been very trouble¬ 
some. I stored some in a tight loft that was not well 
cured and it got very hot and molded badly. But 
when cured where the wind can blow through it as in 
(he little stacks just described, there is no such dan¬ 
ger. and no better forage can be made. All kinds of 
stock eat it with relish and profit. 
IT. E. VAN IIEMAX. 
FARM STONE FOR ENTRANCE TO GROUNDS. Fig. 219 
The equipment of an agricultural college is expen¬ 
sive, for the subject cannot be taught in a laboratory 
and with books and mere apparatus. 
Not long ago, I stood on the great stairs of the new 
agricultural building at the University of Wisconsin 
with Professor Henry. I asked, as I admired the great 
building: “Why do you build such handsome stair¬ 
ways and pillars?” The answer was quick and em¬ 
phatic: “I want the farmer or Jhe farm boy when he 
comes here to take off his hat and say, ‘At last the 
farmer i's as good as anyone. He has risen to the top. 
Agriculture is as important as any other subject.” He 
struck the keynote of the situation; agriculture is to 
be recognized for its full value and the farmer is to 
have greater pride in his business. 
LIME AND SULPHUR WASH. 
1 noted with interest your remarks last Spring on 
spraying for (he scale without cooking the mixture, 
but using caustic potash instead. I have a young or¬ 
chard of 1,000 apple, peach and pear trees, pretty well 
affected with the scale, which I sprayed this Spring. 
I thought some were too far gone to recover. A pear 
tree in particular, which I thought dead, is now shed¬ 
ding its old bark, and has taken on new growth equal 
to any tree in the orchard. I am so well pleased with 
the results of spraying that I want to prepare myself 
for spraying another year. As it is now time that the 
results would show, if you are aware of anyone using 
the mixture without cooking, I am sure a number of 
your readers would be pleased to hear the results. I 
think this scale a more serious matter than one would 
imagine from your short references to it. In this 
vicinity for a radius of 25 miles that I 
know of, it would be just as foolish to 
set out young trees and not spray them 
as to build a mansion on the beach. I 
believe any information you can give on 
this subject would interest quite a num¬ 
ber of your readers. ii. u. a. 
Mercer Co., N. .1. 
R. N.-Y.—This is a matter of great 
importance. The lime and sulphur 
wash is effective against the scale when 
properly made and well sprayed. The 
labor of preparing it by boiling is con¬ 
siderable. If caustic potash will save 
this boiling a great gain will be made. 
We wish to hear from all those who 
have used the potash. Has it proved 
satisfactory? If not, w'hy not? While 
the scale is a great nuisance and danger 
to neglected trees, compensation is found 
in getting rid of many associated pests and diseases 
while fighting this newcomer. When a fruit grower 
gives his trees the needed care and timely attention 
the Pernicious scale does not appear to be quite 
so formidable. _ 
FARM STONE FOR ORNAMENT.—Fig. 219 shows 
the entrance to the famous Hills Farm at Delaware, 
Ohio. This shows the gate opening and Fig. 218 an 
enlarged view of a single stone post. Common farm 
stones were used for this work, which shows what 
can be done with simple material to provide a solid 
and handsome wall. How much better such stone 
work is than the hideous fences so often seen about 
farmhouses! 
