1904 
TIIE RURAL 
NEW-YORKER 
421 
TALKS WITH A LAWYER. 
Trespass from Obstructed Highway. 
Every winter this place is trespassed on 
because the main road is not kept open, it 
being on a hill, and drifting so badly 
as to make traffic impossible. There is 
always more or less damage done to fruit 
and shade trees, beside all the foul seeds 
and hay scattered around; in fact, it looks 
very bad, especially as person owning the 
land is making a Summer place of it. Said 
person is desirous of having the town pay 
for damages done or allowing taxes for such, 
but the people on this beat claim that he 
cannot collect any damages nor have any 
taxes allowed for same; that is for privilege 
for trespassing. There is a private roadway 
on property that owner uses in Summer so 
as to save coming away up the hill to get 
home, this road opening half way on the 
hill, but lower part is also drifted in full 
in winter so people trespass upon neighbor 
below us. Will The It. N.-Y. tell me if owner 
of place , which I am going to take care of 
on shares, cannot really collect damages from 
the town, nor have any taxes allowed? 
R. 
Where a highway is obstructed for any 
reason so as to render it impassable, the 
traveler may pass around the obstruction 
over the adjoining property. To do this 
he may remove fences so far as neces¬ 
sary. This is a rule of necessity of an¬ 
cient origin. The traveler is not, how¬ 
ever, justified in passing over more of 
the adjoining lands than is necessary for 
the purpose of avoiding the obstruction, 
but to the extent necessary lie is entitled 
to enter upon and pass over the adjoin¬ 
ing land without being deemed in law a 
trespasser. The property owner would 
have no redress against persons so pass¬ 
ing over his land, nor against the town, 
unless he could establish that the road¬ 
way or highway was negligently per¬ 
mitted, by the authorities, to remain in 
an obstructed stale. If the authorities 
could reasonably have kept the road clear, 
and neglected to do so, a technical cause 
of action might arise against them. But 
under the circumstances stated it would 
seem to be somewhat difficult to establish 
such a cause of action, and, in any event, 
the amount of damage recovered would 
probably not make it worth the owner’s 
while to embark upon such litigation. 
FRIEND OF ROBIN. 
My husband has been calling my attention 
all through this discussion on bird killing, 
to the fact that only one side was present¬ 
ed. I know you like fair play well enough 
to give room to both sides, so I will say 
plainly how glad I am that the robin haters 
did not carry their point. No article that 
I perused dealt fairly with our insect ex¬ 
terminators. The complaints brought, out 
one point, viz., that protection has increased 
the number of birds. Good; we need them 
all. These birds are with us again, over our 
fields, looking pretty well fed. What do 
they eat? We are cheered by the “wick-a- 
wiek” of the flicker and the “cheer up!’’ of 
the robin. A month or more they have been 
with us; it will be two months yet before 
there will be bcriies for these ‘.‘robbers’’ to 
eat. In the meantime the young come to 
the early-built nests, and th it- yawning 
mouths are to be filled. The flicker is the 
only woodpecker often seen on the ground. 
Flush one from it and you will often find 
ant hills at the spot. He lives largely upon 
them. Ants, we are told by scientists, aid 
in the increase of aphis or plant lice. A 
flicker’s stomach examined reveals its food 
to be more than half ants, the remainder 
various tree inhabiting insects. In early 
Fall it likes berries. Robins are enormous 
feeders; the nestlings will eat their own 
weight each day or more. I know\ for I 
have fed them, and if they do feed them 
fruit it is a very small prop r ion to the 
mass of insects they give them. If later 
they subsist upon fruits and berries 
altogether, which they do not, they would 
still pay their way. The natui'al food of 
these birds we carefully trim off all over 
our road and field edges; not a pokeberry, 
wild grape or wild cherry do we let live if 
we can help it, so if they want fruit they 
must steal. Now I come to a point that 
every farmer knows, but it was passed over 
unnoticed in this discussion; that the ex¬ 
ceptional weather of last early Summer 
made the greatest scarcity of insect life 
tnown in a lifetime. Even mosquitoes were 
scarce at that time. Fruit was not plenty, 
so that we noticed what the birds ate. At 
a convention of bird students a number of 
reports were made of large numbers of 
nestlings found dead or dying. This was at 
first thought to be the fault of the weather, 
but investigation showed the trouble to be 
starvation. This subject has had earnest 
thought, not over books, but out in the 
fields, and I have come to the conclusion 
that there are no birds we ought so care¬ 
fully to protect as ground birds. They are 
the only enemy w r e have for the larvae feed¬ 
ing at the root. Nature distributed plants, 
insects and birds no doubt in a. wise man¬ 
ner, but we have interfered with her ar¬ 
rangement by planting large tracts with 
one variety of plant. Of course the insects 
feeding upon that plant increase out of all 
proportion to the birds frequenting the lo¬ 
cality, hence we should protect them in 
every way we can. Have we a cat that ex¬ 
cels in mousing? We forgive her on that 
account should she upset the cream or 
carry off a tender chop, but we shoot 10 Red¬ 
tailed hawks, with their crops full of mice, 
because a Cooper’s naw r k stole chickens last 
year. Our blackbirds, to whom we should 
offer every inducement to come and parade 
our grassfields and follow our plows, are 
shot ruthlessly because they tear up an 
occasional corn sprout while unearthing 
cutworms. We should congratulate our¬ 
selves that our legislators were better ad¬ 
vised. KATHARINE R. ST1ER. 
Improving a Water System. —Would some 
of The It. N.-Y. family give me suggestions 
how we can get more good from our private 
water system? Our windmill pumps water 
to a large tank in the second story of an out¬ 
building on higher ground than the house. 
The same pipe that takes water to tank 
brings it to house and on to barn. About 
January 1, this year, our tank froze and we 
did not succeed in getting it in working order 
until April 15. We had bottom and sides 
packed with sawdust, and pipe leading to 
tank wrapped with asbestos, and around that 
a box 10x10 with sawdust. During all the 
time the pipe was frozen we could pump to 
the barn and to all the water places in the 
house, but could only have water when the 
wind blew. Wherein did I make mistake in 
packing tank and pipes? I have used our 
present system several years, but it was 
never frozen before. J. b. j. 
Pennsylvania. 
Value of Orchards.—As regards the 
value of an apple orchard in bearing on 
land that would bring $100 per acre without 
orchard, it would be worth from $400 to $500 
per acre with good bearing orchard 
(apples), and in regard to pears would say 
about $100 per acre less and peaches about 
the same. In this section a farm wi.h a 
good apple orchard brings the top price, 
as buyers seem to be looking for improved 
orchards. In regard to tax on land in gen¬ 
eral, in our county there are farms within 
a radius of three miles where tax rate 
would carry from 50 to 60 per cent, accord¬ 
ing to location and quality of soil, so it 
would be a hard matter to give any general 
rules as to tax. J. e. allis. 
Orleans Co.. N Y. 
In Niagara Co.—The value ol farm prop¬ 
erty with an apple orchard has been very 
much enhanced during the past few years. 
The real value of property is most truly 
shown by actual sales. Such sales have 
been made recently at $60 per acre for 
farms with small, partly neglected or¬ 
chards, while farms with larger and better 
cared-for orchards sell for $30 to $125 per 
acre. I would say that the commercial 
value of a well cared-for orchard 20 to 30 
years old is alone worth from $300 to $600 
per acre. w. B. clark. 
Niagara Co., N. Y. 
Nursery Stock On Sod.—L ast Fall I had 
a lot of sod land plowed; sod was very 
heavy and was simply turned over. The 
sod seems to have rotted very well. There 
is a good deal more land than we need for 
our nursery stock, and I have planned to 
plant between lines of shrubs, i. e., line out 
shrubs in rows six feet apart, and plant 
vegetables or mostly potatoes between, 
leaving space to cultivate with horse culti¬ 
vator. I thought of giving the vegetables 
manure and next year move the rows of 
shrubs three feet, so as to manure and 
plant vegetables again. I should only treat 
about an acre that way (when we line out 
small shrubs). I plan to broadcast some 
manure, not much; land is very good and 
rotten sed is good food, then in drills use 
fertilizer. G - c< 
More About the Olivett Apple.— Last 
year mention was made of an apple that 
has long been grown on the original tree 
at Olivett. Ohio, on the premises of Rev. 
J. B. Miller, and now r here else up to this 
time. It is a very late keeper, of good 
quality, fully medium in size, ■well shaped 
and green in color. It closely resembles 
Rhode Island Greening in color, but is 
larger, more nearly round and keeps later. 
It can also be used quite early in the Fall 
for cooking. On May 1 of this year, I had 
another specimen of this apple from the old 
tree, that had been kept in an ordinary 
house cellar over Winter, where all other 
varieties, and among them Ben Davis, had 
perished or become wilted and worthless 
long before. This apple was quite solid, 
juicy and well flavored. I think the variety 
well worthy of extended trial; for it may 
prove a valuable addition to our list of 
good, late apples. h. e. v. d. 
Ringing A Bull.— Tell H. G. Manchester, 
for making an opening in a bull's nose, for 
ringing, not to use an ice pick, but a large, 
three-cornered hand rip-saw file. Grind off 
the teeth from the file; that will leave three 
sharp edges, which wall make a clean cut. 
You will, be surprised how easy it goes 
through. When done, grease it and put it 
away for the next one. A round instru¬ 
ment tears its way. w. y. 
Palmyra, Neb. 
Crude Petroleum and Harness. — I would 
like to add a few words to \Y. I). Breeds’ let¬ 
ter on page 322. He said he used crude pe¬ 
troleum for oiling harness and for boot and 
shoe dressing. The fresh petroleum is in¬ 
jurious to leather. It will make it soft and 
pliable, but open the pores. Shoes that are 
worn about toe wells where crude petroleum 
is produced soon become so that they will not 
turn water. I have found that out from 
experience. If the oil is “burned" it adds to 
its value as a leather dressing. Take an old 
iron pot or kettle—an old tea kettle answers 
very well—till with oil and light it. Let it 
burn for, say, 30 minutes; longer will do no 
harm. Throw an old sack or piece of carpet 
over the kettle to extinguish the flames. Do 
not lift at once or the oil will catch again. 
Pennsylvania. w. w. K. 
Rail and Brush Drains. —.T. J. P., on page 
327, has heard the truth when told it was 
possible to make an underground drain in wet 
land, out of logs, rubbish and the like. I do 
not expect that he or anyone else will take it 
that they are so good as tile, which is the 
best if we can afford it, but logs, rails and 
boards are a makeshift, that does very well 
for from 10 to 20 years, according to the soil. 
When I was a boy my father, an old ditcher, 
had a piece of new land, what we called bull¬ 
frog swamp. He wanted to drain it, and not 
having money to buy tile, we cut an open ditch 
up through the swamp as a leader, and from 
that we put in branches to it. Those side 
ditches we made from 2% to 3 feet deep 
and filled in with rails, logs and brush to 
within a foot of the surface and covered it 
with dirt. In a short time our swamp drained 
off, was plowed and became the richest piece 
of ground we had. This was done in 1884. 
Some years since we moved off the old place 
and three years ago being in the vicinity with 
my brother we took a look at the old swamp. 
It was dry and apparently the old drains were 
doing the business. Of course the grade was 
good, and my observation was that it (trained 
the ground very slowly. We used as much 
system in laying in the old rails as we could, 
in order to makd a throat; on top was brush, 
then dirt. J. s. c. 
Moravia, N. Y. 
Backed up by over a third of a century 
of remarkable and uniform cures, a record 
such as no other remedy for the diseases 
and weaknesses peculiar to women ever 
attained, the proprietors and makers of 
Dr. Pierce’s Favorite Prescription now feel 
fully warranted in offering to pay $500 in 
legal money for any case of Leucorrhea, 
Female Weakness, Prolapsus, or Falling of 
Womb, which they cannot cure. All they 
ask is a fair and reasonable trial of their 
means of cure. 
Very often a married woman or young 
girl does not know who to turn to for ad¬ 
vice in circumstances where she dislikes to 
talk with the family physician about deli¬ 
cate matters. At such times write to Dr. 
R. V. Pierce, chief consulting physician to 
the Invalids’ Hotel and Surgical Institute, 
of Buffalo, N. Y., for free consultation and 
advice, and the same will be held as sa¬ 
credly confidential. It is foolish to consult 
women friends or persons without medical 
training. 
Dr. Pierce’s Favorite Prescription con¬ 
tains no alcohol, is entirely vegetable and 
was the first exclusively woman’s tonic on 
the market—it has sold more largely in 
the past third of a century than any other 
medicine for women. 
All other compounds intended for women 
only are made with alcohcl, or alcohol is a 
large component—this alcohol injures the 
nerves. The little red corpuscles of the 
blood are shrunken by alcohol. All such 
compounds, therefore, do harm. 
Dr. Pierce’s Pleasant Pellets invigorate 
the stomach, liver and bowels. Use them 
with the "Favorite Prescription” when a 
pill is required. One is a laxative, two, a 
mild cathartic. 
A Golden Rule 
of Agriculture: 
Be good to your land and your crop 
will be good. Plenty of 
Potash 
in the fertilizer spells quality 
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1 ■ kills Prairie Dogs, 
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BINDER TWINE 
WE E C. 0. D. 
LOWER PRICES 
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from 
Sample 
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