746 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
October 15, 
and the ladders are all that we use to get in reach of 
the fruit.” 
SKID FOR CRATES.—The device for rolling crates 
into the cellar, Fig. 332 is described by Mr. Vergon 
as follows: 
“Two roller-skids, one 14 feet and one 16 feet long; 
the side-pieces may be made of any light timber which 
is not likely to spring, 1 x / 2 inch thick and five inches 
broad. The rollers may be made of any hard wood, 
turned 1inch in diameter, the ends shouldered down 
to three-fourths of an inch and the holes in side pieces 
seven-eighth of an inch and eight inches apart. Bore 
the holes a little below the center line, which will make 
a flange of a couple of inches on the upper sides of the 
skids. Sink cross-pieces on the under side, with screws 
to hold the skids together. The width on the inside 
must be about one inch broader than the width of 
crates. Now halve the side pieces at one end of each 
skid about three inches back on reverse sides, as shown 
in the cut, so they will lap together and have a straight 
line. A good hook and staple on the outside makes the 
connection and you have a little railway 30 feet long 
if wanted. If full length is used, block up under the 
connection. These two skids cost me $8 many years 
ago. In most cases, one is all that would be needed, 
and their mode of use must be apparent. It takes but 
a few minutes to place them to reach any point where 
apples or potatoes are to be stored. For instance, our 
largest cellar is reached by two doors, and a turn at a 
right angle. In this case one of the skids is run 
through one of the cellar windows; a barrel is placed 
bottom up for the end of the skid to rest on; the win¬ 
dow sill supports the center, and a couple of stakes 
driven in the ground with a cross-piece nailed on to 
support the skid at the proper height to lay the crates 
on from the wagon. It is astonishing how little time 
it takes to unload in this way. If the crates are 
emptied, roll them back on the wagon with a pike pole. 
We do not empty them, however, but stack them up.” 
HOW THEY PICK.—Mr. Vergon gives this account 
of the work: 
“Ten of us, all told, are on hand, the day set, promptly 
at seven o’clock sun time; two boys at half price, two 
men hired by the month, one of whom is foreman while 
I am absent. It is best to tell them all in the beginning 
how the work must be done; then if any one persists 
in transgressing, give him his time in the evening, with¬ 
out argument, except that you have no further use for 
him. All hands now commence on two rows, picking 
all that can be reached from the ground. The empty 
crates serve to set the baskets on, to save the bark 
a little and permit you to pick with both hands. After 
a start is made, the force is divided to the best advan¬ 
tage, with the stools next, and then the ladders. If 
the work is properly managed there will be few apples 
left inside the trees. Have one of the boys get them 
there, as they will not be so likely to bruise the bark 
with their boots. Do not scatter too much, but keep 
the hands well together, which facilitates supervision 
and permits the foreman to be at hand to reach the full, 
and hand up the .empty baskets, set ladders, etc. There 
are no straps or ropes to let the baskets down; we 
use no sorting tables or barrels in the orchard, as it 
makes too much work outside; “too many cooks,” too 
many hands at once. The object is to get the crop in 
where it is safe in the shortest possible time. We never 
sort until we sell; then there are no rotten apples in 
the barrels. We never lie off in the mornings on ac¬ 
count of a little frost or heavy dew. Those picked early 
are hauled in last, when dried off, in the afternoon, but 
would not do in barrels. This is important, as all 
should be dry before being stored. Sometimes in catchy 
weather, we set three or four crates on top of each other 
that the wind may the more readily dry them out. I 
feel as if I cannot say too much in favor of the crates; 
a given space holds so much more than in barrels; they 
cool off better, and are more easily dumped on the sort¬ 
ing tables. Our greatest yield from a single tree was 
42 bushels, besides eight bushels or more of windfalls 
upon the ground. This tree is in a section of the 
orchard which I planted 32 years ago, and which is still 
almost uniformly vigorous. It was at this time I com¬ 
menced planting low-headed trees, as nearly as 1 could 
2'/ 2 to three feet from the ground. I believe it is an 
irreparable mistake in my soil and climate, at least, to 
trim or head fruit trees six feet high. I have already 
outlived the usefulness of one of these high-headed 
orchards, and some years ago grubbed it all out except 
a few trees near the house.” 
CAUSE OF PROSPERITY IN KANSAS.—Notwithstanding 
crops in Kansas arc not up to former years, the people have 
over $1,000,000 in the banks in 1904. Forty counties have 
sent no convict to prison this year; 45 counties had no one 
in the jails, and Iiodgeman County has had no one for three 
years. ’ In the consumption of beer and whisky we are very 
much below that of the adjoining States, as Nebraska con¬ 
sumed 22 times as much beer as Kansas. There are only a 
few cities where the traffic is fined in Kansas, yet the taxes 
are lower than in licensed States. While the great strike 
of the A. T. & S. F. R. It. was settled in less than a week, 
with no open saloon In the city, in Colorado they had their 
strike for over a year, with all the picnics the saloon could 
provide, having them open on every corner and block to sell 
the stuff that made the men unruly. While prohibition is the 
best home builder, it is also the best friend of labor and 
capital, and when both help to establish prohibition they 
help their own cause and that of humanity. a. h. griesa. 
THE TREATMENT OF SWAMP LAND. 
I have a piece of low meadow land that lies in black 
muck or peat from three to eight feet in depth, and has been 
full of water for years, with practically no drainage. It 
has produced a good quality of tussock grass, fine and large 
in quantity, but owing to the amount of water in the soil 
the hay has been made and carried out without the use 
of the horse. The tract Is now being thoroughly drained by 
spacious ditching. What will be the effect of drainage sim¬ 
ply upon the quality and quantity of the hay another year? 
I am well aware that best results on such a piece of land 
will come from sweetening it with lime in liberal quantity 
this Autumn, followed by deep plowing. Then after the 
Winter passes another plowing for seeding with clover and 
Timothy or some other grass. But what will be the effect 
of withholding all this except the drainage on the hay 
product of this field another year? a. b. 
Massachusetts. 
Thorough drainage will slowly improve the quality and 
increase the quantity of the hay in this swamp. Re¬ 
moving the water and admitting the air will improve 
the conditions for cultivated grasses. They will slowly 
appear, but the swamp will not be fully productive until 
the soil is thoroughly worked and fitted. While lime 
is considered necessary in improving such soils, experi¬ 
ence in the West has shown that potash is the element 
most lacking. 
In Illinois and Indiana careful work by the experiment 
stations has shown this beyond all question. In these 
two States there are large tracts of so-called “unproduc¬ 
tive” land. They are mostly wet and swampy—usually 
black soil. Farmers usually consider black swamp land 
or muck very rich. It is thought to be the strongest of 
all soils, since it usually represents the bottoms of old 
lakes or ponds which received the drainage from higher 
places. When such swamps are drained and cropped 
they are often disappointing, especially for such crops 
as potatoes or corn. The usual explanation given for 
this is that such soils are “sour,” and heavy dressings 
of lime are recommended. This does not always give 
desired results for more than two years. The chemists 
in Indiana and Illinois analyzed many of these soils, and 
found them very deficient in potash. In some cases 
there was three times as much nitrogen and also more 
phosphoric acid than in good corn ground, but the potash 
was lacking, in some cases hardly 10 per cent of the 
amount found in good soils. Even the small quantity 
present was mostly unavailable. The question is natu¬ 
rally asked why sudh soils should be strong in two 
elements and very weak in another. Prof. Hopkins, of 
Illinois, makes the following statement: 
Peat itself consists largely of partially decayed sphagnum 
moss, which grew in the water which once covered these 
acres. In growing, the moss obtains carbon from the carbon 
dioxide in the air, and hydrogen and oxygen from water, 
being similar to other plants in this respect The water 
PICKER FOR LOW-IIEADED TREES. Fig. 332. 
in which the sphagnum moss grows is more or less stagnant. 
It is usually surface drainage or seepage water, and contains 
sufficient nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and other essen¬ 
tial elements of plant food lo meet the needs of the growing 
moss. Both nitrogen and phosphorus enter into fairly stable 
organic combinations with the carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, 
and when the moss changes to peat, and even when the peat 
partially decays, these two elements, nitrogen and phosphorus 
(especially the nitrogen), are largely retained in the organic 
matter. The potassium, however, reverts more largely to the 
soluble form, and it is finally lost to a greater or less extent 
in the drainage waters flowing from the peat bogs. A con¬ 
siderable number of the peaty swamp soils from different 
places in the State have been analyzed by the experiment 
station, and they are found to be very rich in nitrogen, well 
supplied with phosphorus, but very deficient in potassium, as 
compared with the ordinary fertile soils of the State. It has 
long been known that such soils are frequently deficient in 
mineral elements. 
Of course thorough drainage is the most important 
treatment for these soils. It is not always possible to 
drain them when they occupy large tracts. Whether 
drained or undrained, experiments have shown that 
potash in the form of muriate or kainit gives better 
results than lime. Several crops of grass can be grown 
without the application of potash, but it is the general 
experience of swamp farming that for all grain or tuber 
crops potash is essential on these low lands. 
THE PLAIN FARMER’S WORDS. 
Among the dozen or more periodicals that come to our 
home, your esteemed paper finds regular and interested 
readers, and gives us frequent subjects of discussion as 
well as much valuable information. 1 am the son of 
one of the most successful and best-known farmers of 
Albany County, thoroughly acquainted with farm life 
in both its brighter and its darker aspects, and imbued 
with a wholesome respect for all that pertains to the 
profession of agriculture. My training has been broad 
and liberal, so that I sec more in rural life than the toil 
of every day and the eternal necessity of making a living. 
It is, therefore, with interest, if not with perfect agree¬ 
ment that I read the paragraphs on “Big Words” in 
Hope Farm Notes, page 655. They suggest to me a 
significance perhaps not intended nor conceived—it was 
the question of ideals. The Frenchman believes that 
ambition on the part of the peasant, or the butcher, or 
the baker, should be actively discouraged, as socially 
destructive to the individual and dangerous to the econ¬ 
omy of the household. The German, the Russian, and 
even the Englishman and other Europeans act upon 
similar principles of social organization, which differ 
only in their methods of application or in their scope. 
But it has remained for America, and may it ever be 
her glory to uphold it, to be the first to formulate and 
to act upon the principles of progress for the people, of 
higher ideals for all. It is essentially the spirit of our 
country to encourage ambition, by making it possible 
for all to develop and to improve their conditions in 
proportion to their capacities. 
In the light of these thoughts, then, what should be 
the end in life of the “plain everyday farmer”? If, 
among other things, it is not to care to know and to be 
able to use correctly, words such as agriculturist, horti¬ 
culturist, and physiologist, but on the other hand, is to 
rest content with farmer, gardener, and doctor, then it 
is to put limitations on his ideals of self-improvement 
that are contrary to the spirit of American democracy. 
Moreover as a matter of suggestion, it seems to go even 
further than that—it seems to discount the value of the 
intellectual and cultural side of life, which, after all, is 
the side of enjoyment and relaxation, and to give 
importance beyond all true proportion to the practical 
side, the side of work and of effort to acquire property. 
Why is it that the word “farmer” has become so expres¬ 
sive in slang to designate anyone who lacks neatness in 
dress and appearance or refinement in speech and man¬ 
ners? Simply because so many who follow the profes¬ 
sion of agriculture are deficient in these very respects, 
and unfortunately have no ambition to seek improvement. 
Is ; t not worth while to do something to change this 
condition? To wear out is of course better than to rust 
out, but an efficient machine is never allowed carelessly 
to wear out; and even a “plain everyday farmer” cannot 
be an efficient and valuable member of society, if he does 
not care both for his mind and his body. To read the 
political and literary magazine as well as the agricultural 
papers will not only improve his use of language, but 
will give him a wider view of life and a clearer under¬ 
standing of the conditions throughout the world. As a 
source of pleasure and instruction, to see and to know 
the different countries through the printed pages, is 
second only to a personal visit. To study and to apply 
to his daily work some of the scientific principles that 
underlie his profession as truly as they do others, will 
not only lessen the labor required, but will also add to 
his profits. To send his boys to school and even to 
college, so that they will have as much knowledge as 
possible before they go to work for themselves, will not 
only bring joy to his heart for making them more 
efficient, but will create for him as for them avenues of 
new pleasure and refined enjoyment not hitherto known. 
It has been a cause for regret that in my European 
travels, I have found a general feeling of contempt for 
the cultural development of the American people. Our 
great commercial success has blinded us to the value and 
necessity of cultivating the artistic side of life as well as 
the practical side. Although we speak the English lan¬ 
guage we are drifting away from the purity of speech 
that we inherited from the mother country. We are far 
too much giving way to the spirit of the phrase “this 
is good enough for me,” and forgetting that low per¬ 
sonal ideals involve low national ideals. If we would 
keep high and untarnished our nation's reputation among 
nations, we must be willing to soar a little in our own 
personal thoughts and speech and associations. We may 
still be “plain everyday farmers,” and yet strive to 
know the progress of the world and of science. And by 
this endeavor let us widen our vocabularies; let us cher¬ 
ish our ambitions, and let us hold fast to the truth 
that social development is impossible without individual 
improvement. wtixiam b. aspinwall, ph. d. 
Albany, N. Y. 
