1898 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
847 
is used to return) which costs $4 50 per mile. For part 
of the way, 20 foot walnut poles are used ; a line fence 
with a 2 x 4-inch, eight-foot-long timber spiked to 
posts 10 rods apart serves for poles for half a mile. 
By putting extensions on the posts, the wire is placed 
above all interference of stock, weeds, etc. For the 
rest of the way, we put our brackets on poles of a 
commercial line that has a station which is a terminal 
of our line. Should we have occasion to use their 
line, we transfer, that is, we call their operator, who 
receives our message and talks to the parties called, 
and then answers us. 
In placing the brackets, insulators and wire on the 
poles, two 16-foot ladders were used. An ordinary 
wire stretcher will easily draw the wire tight enough. 
Every phone has its own call, that is, so many rings 
of the bell, 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. It doesn’t require an expert 
to put up a line, at least, it didn’t in our case, as we 
put up the line ourselves. We simply ground each 
end of the line wire, also have a ground wire to the 
other phones, to be used as a protection against light¬ 
ning. Every phone has two one-cell batteries, and 
one must be sure to cross the poles of the same. The 
phones are put in working order at the factory. Con¬ 
nect them to the line wire. Refrain from all meddling 
or tinkering of the delicate internal mechanism, at 
least until the office of every part is thoroughly 
understood. Of course, there is no privacy on a line 
of this kind ; still, this is no great objection. All 
phone lines are more or less public. In the Winter, 
when the farmer and his family are shut in more or 
less, the phone more than pays for itself, for much of 
that loneliness is overcome when he can hear his 
served to replenish the soil and bring it back to a 
condition fitted to growing wheat again. During the 
Civil War, there was a great demand for beans to 
be used as food by the soldiers. Following the war, 
there was a great increase in the demand, and prices 
went to even $6 and $7 per bushel. The Government 
advertised the bean industry during the war, for 
many soldiers learned to eat this toothsome vege¬ 
table for the first time, while in the army. When 
they were mustered out, they never dropped their 
taste for beans, and wherever they went, they spread 
an appetite and a demand for this crop. 
Growing and Handling.— Mr. Allis says that, in 
a good season, beans will sometimes yield as high as 
40 bushels per acre, but this year, they blighted and 
rusted. Some pieces were actually not pulled at all, 
while others that promised 25 to 30 bushels in the 
Summer, went from 10 to 12 bushels short, and sold 
for from 80 cents to $1 for Pea beans, and 81 30 to 81.50 
for Red Kidney. The first beans grown in western 
New York were planted by hand, and thrashed with 
a flail. After the flail, horses were used to tread the 
beans from the vines. This was followed by a ma¬ 
chine that did not separate the beans from the chaff, 
and now has come the machine pictured at Fig. 386, 
which will take out stones and dirt. Even this ma¬ 
chine is not smart enough to pick out the poor beans, 
but in large warehouses, they have a machine with 
rubber rollers which can be set at any desired angle. 
These rollers will throw out a poor bean if it is 
rough, but smooth ones have to be picked by hand. 
The beans are now nearly all planted with a grain 
drill. It plants three rows at a time, 28 inches apart. 
feed its people on spiritual experiments. One would 
think that the very essence of Christianity would 
mean sending the strongest and best thought to help 
build up the weak places. Back among these hills the 
farmers’ institute is a public blessing. It calls the 
people together, and gives them new thoughts. 
“ Ah ! ” said one man to me, “ you should have heard 
Mr. F. A Derthick lecture on Why Am I a Farmer ? 
It makes us all proud to think that we live on the 
farm ! ” 
I meet people sometimes who growl because time is 
lost at the institute in good music or even an opening 
prayer ! They want it all practical meat; but many 
a man goes from such a meeting with a happy, haunt¬ 
ing thought in his mind, put there by a strong word, 
a bit of fun or even a strain of music. Almost all the 
people I meet, back on these lonely farms, are heartily 
in favor of free rural mail delivery. They realize how 
it would bring them closer to the great world, and 
they are beginning to think and talk about rural tele¬ 
phone lines, though they are many years away. 
Tile-Drained Land. —Tn Ross County, we came 
close to the Ohio River again, and into one of the 
oldest-settled parts of the State. The Indians knew 
the sort of corn that this soil would produce, and how 
they did fight with the white man for its possession. 
I thought I had seen clover before, but some of the 
heavy tile-drained farms in this section had clover- 
made soils almost rich enough to bag and send back 
east to be used as a fertilizer. Mr. John M. Jamison's 
farm shows the great value of skillful “ manuring 
with drain tile.” This farm was originally a cold, 
heavy clay. These clays are usually strong soils— 
THE NEW BEAN THRASHER AT WORK IN THE FIELD IN WESTERN NEW YORK. Fig. 386. 
neighbor’s voices. Sometimes, by opening the phone, 
he is favored with a concert, or a piano or violin solo. 
Kansas. Walter zimmerman. 
BEANS IN WESTERN NEW YORK. 
HOW THE CROP HAS DEVELOPED. 
Old and New. —Daring the Fall, The R. N.-Y. 
gave an account of the mammoth grain harvester 
which worked successfully in California. Mr. Clark 
Allis, of Orleans County, N. Y., does not like to have 
people think that all the big things are out west. He, 
therefore, sends us the picture shown at Fig. 386, 
which represents the Bidwell bean-thrasher at work 
in the field. The field shown contained 30 acres of 
beans, which were drawn directly to the machine, the 
whole job being done in three-fourths of a day. As 
a rule, however, field thrashing of beans is not usually 
practiced in western New York. The beans are first 
drawn into barns or stacks. JMr. Allis says that his 
beans were thrashed by one of these thrashers, and 
sold direct from the machine to the bean warehouse, 
being so free from dirt that it was not necessary to run 
them through the recleaning machinery. This great 
bean-thrashing machine represents the culmination 
of a long series of operations. 
Beginning of the Business.— Mr. S. C. Bowen 
stated at a farmers’ institute last year that, in 1836, 
a single pint of beans was brought into the town of 
Yates, from the eastern part of New York. In 1839, 
33 bushels of beans were sold from this original 
stock, and this is supposed to be the first load of 
beans sold in western New York. In the season of 
1895 and 1896, there were paid out in the village of 
Medina alone, over 8100,000 for beans, and probably 
half a million bushels were grown in the entire 
county of Orleans. Mr. Bowen says that the 
early settlers first attempted to clear a hole in the 
woods, and started to grow the corn and wheat. Con¬ 
tinuous crops of wheat exhausted the soil, then beans 
became the general crop, and bean growing has 
Mr. Allis says that he sows rye, oats, rape or Crimson 
clover at the last cultivation. Thus he cannot use a 
bean puller, but has the vines pulled by hand, paying 
81.25 per acre. The bean vines are used as fodder for 
sheep chiefly, and in Orleans County, bring from 83 to 
85 per load. This year hay is so low that bean fodder 
is worth only 83. 
This characteristic crop of western New York has 
made much money for the farmers in times past and, 
like clover or cow peas, benefits the land. 
A YANKEE IN OHIO. 
HOW THE STATE LOOKS TO EASTERN EYES. 
Its Advantages and Disadvantages. 
Part IX. 
I EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE.! 
Some Social Questions. —Back from the railroads 
in Licking County, as elsewhere in Ohio, are decaying 
towns and trade centers. In former days, the old 
State roads were lined with little towns and prosper¬ 
ous villages. A good proportion of the trade was 
hauled by wagon, and in a small way, these little 
country places represented, to the highway, what such 
towns as Newark now represent to the railroad. The 
old stage coach and freight wagon have now gone, 
and with them has gone the business of the little 
town. This has meant a change in all that the town 
represented—the church, the factory or store, and the 
local trade of the farmer. The country churches are 
losing ground. Their congregations are growing 
smaller, and I should judge that their influence in the 
community is, upon the whole, weaker. Some farm¬ 
ers drive to town to church, while others have stopped 
going. I was told that some country churches are re¬ 
garded as good places for trying young candidates for 
the ministry. On the principle of “trying it on a 
dog ”, young men will be sent to the country church 
to gain experience and to see what they can do. This 
experimenting may be a good thing for the young 
minister, but it means death to the country church to 
particularly rich in potash. A soil rich in potash will 
produce good clover, provided it can be opened and 
dried without baking up like a brick. Originally the 
soil was water-logged and cold, because the water 
could not drain freely away from and through it. A 
regular system of tile drains was put down on the 
farm. A map now shows just where these tiles run. 
This took off the surplus water, yet still the upper 
soil would not produce good clover until humus or 
vegetable matter could be worked into it to loosen it 
up and let in more of the air and sun. 
All this was interesting to me, although our soil is 
so light and sandy that tile drainage would be a dis¬ 
advantage. The problem with us is to work vege¬ 
table matter into the upper soil, not as on Mr. Jami¬ 
son’s farm, to help dry out the soil, but to enable it to 
hold more moisture. We aim to do this by plowing 
under crops of Crimson clover and cow peas. Mr. 
Jamison “ started ” his farm by hauling stable manure 
from a near-by town. In New Jersey, our farmers 
buy car-load after car-load of stable manure. Mr. 
Jamison got this manure for the hauling, and it opened 
and “ started ” his soil so that great crops of clover 
and wheat were made possible. There is much more 
competition for the manure now, and Mr. Jamison 
told me that he was satisfied that, with a liberal use 
of fertilizers, he could produce such clover that manure 
is scarcely needed. 
Fertilizers on Wheat. —When they speak of fer¬ 
tilizers in this western country, they do not mean the 
high-grade mixtures we are used to in the East. We 
often call for four per cent or more of nitrogen, and 
we want that nitrogen in three or more forms. We 
also call for eight per cent or so of potash, and we 
talk about the best forms of that. With these western 
clover farmers, a “fertilizer” means the cheapest 
form of soluble phosphoric acid with a small amount 
of kainit added. The very sort that produces such 
crops of clover would feel insulted if you pointed at it 
and said potash ! One might just as well think of 
buying nitrogen to put on some old niter bed, as to 
