1904. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
859 
IS THE END OF THE ABANDONED FARMS 
IN SIGHT? 
Not in Some Localities. 
The writer is very familiar with a large region in 
western Massachusetts where year after year the aban¬ 
doned farm area has grown in size. Each year farm 
buildings are closed up and left tenantless. I 
could ‘ake readers of The R. N.-Y. over a long 
drive up hill and down full of sadness in the 
deserted homes. This past Summer I spent some 
time in Connecticut, part of it in localities where 
farm land is for sale at your owi> price. Even 
the Connecticut Agricultural College is located 
in the abandoned farm region, and between the 
college and Mansfield depot one goes by some 
such property. Again, I am reminded of two 
other sections of Massachusetts where the people 
would regard some farm purchasers as a veritable 
God-send. The writer does not question but what 
in some localities in New England farm prop¬ 
erties have grown in value, but he personally 
knows of other regions of considerable area 
that are still going backward. 
It is too bad that these properties are in this 
deserted condition. Many of them will surely 
furnish an intelligent farmer a good living, but 
as yet they lack the farmer. The use and de¬ 
velopment of New England farm land will be¬ 
come more significant when the people learn to 
love the country and its charms more. The in¬ 
troduction of the electric road, the telephone 
and the rural delivery will help much to bring 
town and country together. In the Central West, 
in some sections, people are moving to the coun¬ 
try from very love of rural surroundings, men 
going into town daily to attend to business. Only 
a few days ago I was visiting a farm' to see 
a herd of Hereford cattle, about eight miles from 
a city. The owner was employed in a busi¬ 
ness house in the city, and traveled back and 
forth daily. Such cases are becoming more and 
more common in the Mississippi Valley. If the 
New England agricultural colleges can help 
turn the tide back to the country, they will have 
done a great work, though the problem is a 
difficult one. Yet short Winter courses, the so- 
called university extension work, and other popu¬ 
lar methods will assist in stimulating the farm¬ 
ing communities here -and there to greater in¬ 
terest. The New England agricultural colleges 
are doing good work, but they have some in¬ 
teresting problems yet to work on. Don’t think the 
West is filled up. There is an immense amount of land 
yet available in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and 
westward, either for homesteading or purchase, and 
fertile farms can be bought at low prices. Not only 
this, but right up over the border Canada offers free 
farms of 160 acres to all the citizens of Uncle Sam 
who will occupy them. Rural New England must be 
developed on its merits. The lover of the country 
will here find opportunity to develop 
charming homes at a low cost. Further, 
there are many properties now lying 
on the bargain counter awaiting a buyer, 
in a not unworthy field, where good 
prices can always be secured for prod¬ 
uce, where fuel is cheap, where soil 
is fairly fertile, and where man may 
live in independence and contentment 
if he will. c. s. plumb. 
Ohio State University. 
TREES INJURED BY DEER. 
In regard to the damage to those 
young apple trees, browsed by the deer, 
perhaps the jury might render a more 
just verdict if they viewed the premises 
and understood the circumstances a little 
better. There are quite a number of 
things to take into consideration. What 
was the original value of trees? Were 
they set a proper distance apart, and in 
a proper manner? Were they properly 
taken care of? In fact, I have seen 
young orchards set where it would have 
been a blessing to the owner if they 
had all been eaten off by deer when a 
year old, and other orchards where the 
loss would have been 50 cents or more 
per tree. But, generally speaking, I 
should add the cost price of trees, cost 
of setting and care, and 10 cents per 
tree for loss of growth for one year. In 
many cases this would be too small, yet 
I think the average apple grower who 
can sell his orchard at a clear profit of 
$75 per acre at 15 years, and at the 
same time receive fair wages for all 
work done, has a better investment than 
EXPERIENCE WITH A DITCHING PLOW. 
How Labor is Saved. 
In answer to your inquiry for experience with a 
ditching plow, I have used one nearly every season for 
the past 20 years, and would not undertake a job of 
ditching without it. I do not use the regular ditching 
plow, but a heavy subsoil plow, which I like much 
better in stony land, as it is less liable to get fast, 
and is easier handled than the heavy ditching 
plows, two horses being all that is required. In 
using the plow T proceed as follows: First I open 
up the ditch with common plow two furrows 
deep, shoveling out the dirt on both sides and as 
close as possible to it. This first plowing will 
make the ditch about a foot deep. Then I pro¬ 
ceed with ditching plow, using a six-foot evener, 
so that the horses can walk one on each side of 
ditch, going Iwo or three times through; then 
shovel out and plow again till the required depth 
is reached, when all the picking that is needed 
is to level the bottom. A ditch made in this 
way can be easily filled by using a common plow 
and the long evener with the center clevis near 
one end. As a labor saver, in any place where it 
is possible to use a team, the same number of 
men can dig from two to four times as much 
ditch in a day with the plow as they could with¬ 
out it. With the help of one man I recently 
dug HO rods of 2jA-foot ditch ready for the tile 
in eight hours. Howard s. fullagar. 
Yates Co., N. Y. 
HOW TO HANDLE THE SCALE. 
T do not know that I can tell just the best 
method for treating a small orchard infested with 
the San Jose scale. Your correspondent well 
says that new methods are so frequent and new 
preparations are so continually being made that 
no one can be quite sure of the latest and best. 
I can say, however, that our experience indicates 
that a thorough spraying with the lime, sulphur 
and salt wash in the latter part of Winter is a 
satisfactory and effectual method of treatment. 
We find that where this preparation has been 
carefully used oidy a small percentage of scales 
survive. We feel sure that one thorough spraying 
a year will control this insect, and perhaps it 
may not be necessary to spray every year. A 
simple formula to remember is as follows: One 
pound each of the lime, sulphur and salt; one 
gallon of water for each pound of material fi.e., 
three gallons for the three pounds used in this com¬ 
bination). A modification which has proved just as 
effective consists of 20 pounds of lime, 15 pounds of 
sulphur, 10 pounds of salt to an oil barrel full of 
water. With a kerowater pump the operator can use 
a 25 per cent mixture of crude petroleum, which we 
have also found effective, but not so safe as the lime, 
sulphur and salt. Should he find the young unusually 
numerous in Summer, he can spray with a 10 per cent 
mixture of kerosene, which will help to 
hold the insect in check until the Win¬ 
ter treatment can be given. Sucb Sum¬ 
mer spraying is, however, to be consid¬ 
ered only as a temporary expedient in 
cases of emergency, since it can accom¬ 
plish but little towards eradicating the 
pest. FRED W. CARD. 
Kingston, R. I. 
USE OF HAND SEPARATOR 
AT HOME. 
As to the reason why I prefer to sep¬ 
arate my milk at home, I would say first, 
that I am quite a distance from a skim¬ 
ining station, and we can separate a 
great deal quicker than can take it away, 
especially in the Winter, we do not 
have to go out stormy weather with the 
milk freezing to the cans. Secondly, I 
think I receive a better test and more di 
rect pay for my cream than I do on the 
milk test when I send it away, and they 
give a half-cent more for butter fat if 
we do the separating. There are not 
many drawbacks, because I rent the sep¬ 
arator and the company is to keep it in 
repair and gather the cream at my door. 
During the Summer months, with a 
horse-power to turn the separator, I 
think it is the better way for farmers, 
and the companies greatly prefer to have 
each individual do his own skimming, 
as the expense of running the skimming 
station must of course come out of the 
fanners. I think the time is close at 
hand when the skimming stations will 
be a thing of the past. c. P. R. 
St. Albans, Vt. 
an average grower. It is a matter that one unacquainted 
with all the circumstances can only guess at, and if 
M. A. P. is in doubt in the matter, would advise him 
to get the value of young Baldwin apple orchards in 
his neighborhood. We have figured the damages upon 
a basis of a total loss of trees, as, to my mind, a tree 
which has been browsed all Summer and now has 
NEW WHITE GRAPE STERLING, NATURAL SIZE. 
See liiiralisms, Page 862. 
Fig. 401. 
little or no growth of this season's wood is not worth 
bothering with. I would prefer to set over all such 
trees with a strictly first-class two-year-old tree. We 
have no use for a stunted tree. If on looking over 
the trees some are worth saving, allow a fair value 
for such trees. Without seeing the trees, one can only 
touch generally upon the question of monetary com 
pensation for damage. H. o. mead. 
Massachusetts. 
NEW RED GRAPE ST. JOHN. REDUCED IN SIZE. Fig. 402. 
See Ruralisms, Page 862. 
