] 8 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
January 11 
that, if I had started in 1888 as I started one year ago, 
and spent the $1,973 in paying for shares in this as¬ 
sociation, I would have my house two-thirds paid for 
instead of, as now, having nothing to show for it. 
I have read many arguments against this system of 
building; but I am satisfied that, for me, this plan 
was the best I could adopt at the time. If one has 
capital enough to get his house well started, he may 
then borrow from individuals enough to complete it, 
giving a mortgage on the whole. I found most people 
shy about loaning money before ground was broken 
for the house. They would accept a mortgage on a 
completed or partly built house, but the building and 
loan people are able to protect themselves from the 
first breaking of the ground. 
Our local association succeeds for several very good 
reasons. It is a mutual affair. There are no heavy 
salaries to eat up the profits. The treasurer is paid a 
small salary, but the other officers give their time. 
Why ? They are all interested in building up the 
town. They think it far better that the savings of 
working people should be invested at home in improv¬ 
ing town property, than to have them put into in¬ 
stitutions that would send the funds far away for in 
vestment. Every time a new house is built in our 
town, there is provided work for mechanics and labor¬ 
ers and new business for all classes. New people are 
attracted to the town, and all sorts of desirable prop¬ 
erty becomes more valuable. Again, these men are 
glad to see young people secure homes of their own, 
and save the money so long paid as rent. A young 
man becomes a better citizen when he realizes that he 
is no longer a mere tenant, but that he is paying 
surely and steadily for his own house. During the 
past year, nearly 30 new houses were built by this as¬ 
sociation, worth all the way from $1,000 to $4,500. 1 
do not say that all building and loan associations are 
as safe and prosperous as this one. Their strength 
lies in the character of the men who manage them. I 
would not care to invest in the large companies man¬ 
aged by strangers. These large companies must pay 
heavy salaries, there is more danger of dishonesty, 
and in loaning money to strangers, it is natural that 
the risks should be greater while the mutual profits 
will be smaller. In our association, we know every 
officer personally. It is easy to keep track of loans, 
and avoid serious losses through poor securities M3 7 
impression is that the well-managed, small associa¬ 
tion is more helpful than the larger ones. The fact 
is that the basic principle of the building and loan as¬ 
sociation is one of help and practical benevolence, and 
it can succeed only when the men at the head of it 
recognize that fact. This article is too long to permit 
any argument to show how the lending principle 
could be made useful to farmers on the security of 
farm property. I hope to discuss that in a future 
issue. The conditions would be different away from 
a town, but I think that the principle of the coopera¬ 
tive borrowing could be applied and thus greatly 
help farmers. 
And now a word about the house. A picture of the 
front and side is shown at Fig. 8, with the arrange¬ 
ments of the first and second floors at Figs. 9 and 10. 
One room has been finished off in the attic, while in 
the basement are laundry, storerooms, coal bins and 
furnace. After trying to figux-e out her ideal house 
without a model to go by, my wife found a house 
ali-eady built that suited her fairly well, and with this 
for a model, she changed the plans until she has, ap¬ 
parently, utilized every inch of space, and pi-ovided 
closets enough for an army. My first plan was to 
build a small cottage at a cost of, say, $2,200. The 
argument against this idea was that a larger house 
would sell or rent to better advantage than a small 
one—supposing it were necessary to dispose of it. 
That has been proved true. A real estate agent, after 
looking our house over, says that he can easily obtain 
$40 per month x'ent for it. Think what that means. 
We could, if necessary, move out, i-ent the house, 
take the tenant’s x-ent and pay our $32 per month, and 
have $100 per year left for taxes and repairs. In other 
woi'ds, the tenant would pay for our house with his 
x*ent. In less than 10 yeai’s, we would own the house 
while the tenant would have no more to show for his 
money than we now have to show for the $1,973 which 
we spent before moving into our own house. Is not 
that a forcible illustration of the advantage of sound 
cooperative building ? 
Our house cost more than we expected when we 
started to build. That seems to be the usual stoi’y 
with young builders. As the building went up, one 
little change after another was suggested. For ex¬ 
ample, at first thought, we planned to have the fi’ont 
of the house above the piazza without a bay window. 
When we saw how much such a window would add to 
the appeai'ance of the house and the comfort of the 
room, we had it put in and ax-e vei-y glad now 7 that we 
did so. In the kitchen, too, we tried to put in con¬ 
veniences for lightening labor. The best thing is a 
lai’ge dumb waiter on which a full meal can be sent 
up or down. The women folks have a small stove set 
up in the basement, and on hot days, meals are 
cooked down there and the fire in the range goes out. 
In short, we have tried to keep well within our 
means, and build a comfortable home. In a good 
many cases, that is the best investment a man can 
make with his first savings. We have about half an 
acre of land immediately around the house, which is 
available for gardening. The plan is to stock this 
with small fruits—chiefly strawberries and currants. 
While w 7 e shall experiment more or less with new 
varieties and methods of culture, we also aim to sell 
enough fruit to pay taxes at least, and to grow plants 
to stock another farm in which we have an intei’est. 
We shall have more to say about this later. The past 
season was spent in preparing the soil for fruits. 
Our little place has been named “ Luava”—a com¬ 
bination of the names of wife and baby. n. w\ c. 
SEED POTATOES STARTED RIGHT. 
GOOD CULTURE FROM SPROUT TO FINISH. 
The History of a Big Crop. 
On page 827 of Tiik R. N.-Y. of 1895, allusion w 7 as 
made to a crop of potatoes raised by me, with the i 7 e- 
quest, “We w r ould be glad to hear how he did it.” I 
hardly feel like assuming that I did it. The part that 
I took was to furnish nil the conditions so far as my 
intelligence and expex-ience warranted, and I left the 
result in the hands of a higher power. These condi¬ 
tions ai'e compai-atively simple, but at the same time, 
indispensable. Suitable soil, a potato having the 
capacity of gi-owing a lai’ge ci’op, the presence of fer¬ 
tility or plant food in quantity considerably larger 
than the crop will be likely to utilize, in an available 
condition. In addition to these, all the various opera¬ 
tions must be performed at just the right time and in 
the right way for the best results. 
The greater part of the land had been used as a 
Concord vineyard for 25 years, well cared for and 
annually supplied with commercial fertilizers suffi¬ 
cient, it is believed, to renew all the constituents re¬ 
moved by crops. No vegetable matter had been 
supplied in all this time. Even the grape leaves were 
all carried off by the winds. A corner of the field had 
been in grass for many years, yielding about two tons 
of hay, with an annual top-dressing of fertilizer. I 
intended to plow it in the autumn of 1894, but did not 
get it quite ready. It is a strong, loamy soil on a 
hardpan bottom, hai'dly needing drainage for annual 
crops, and only partially drained. It was plowed 
April 25 to 29, with a sulky plow, about seven inches 
deep—hardly deep enough. 
My ideal fertilizer not being obtainable in the mar¬ 
ket, I had prepared a mixture made up as follows for 
each acre : 
Pounds. 
Sulphate of potasli. 460 
Nitrate of soda. 600 
Sulphate of ammonia. 330 
Dissolved boneblack. 350 
Floats . 150 
Sulphate of masmesia. 130 
To this was added 300 pounds of plaster, partly for 
its mechanical influence in the mixture, and partly 
because our soils are but scantily supplied with lime 
in any form. According to analyses and experience, 
these are the elements in the right proportions for 
the production of GOO bushels of potatoes. I did not 
expect to get that amount of produce, as I could not 
anticipate that all of these materials would be trans¬ 
muted into tubers ;-but I did think that I should real¬ 
ize a lai-ger product than if I applied less, while all 
the unused potash, phosphoric acid and magnesia, at 
least, would be available later on, as I hope hereafter 
to demonstrate. The larger half of this compound 
was spread broadcast, May 1, and well harrowed with 
a disc harrow, followed by an Acme. 
Seed of the Carman No. 1 which I had grown the 
season previous, free from scab, although scabby 
when treated with mercuric chloride in 1894, was 
soaked in a solution of sulphate of copper 1 part to 
500 (1 pound to 60 gallons), for 90 minutes, and spread 
on boards in a warm greenhouse April 18-20. The 
potatoes contained in bushel baskets were immersed 
five at a time in a tank holding the solution, and 
thus easily placed and removed. May 3-11, the spi-outs 
being from one-quarter to one half inch long and 
vei’y strong, the tubers were cut to single eyes, and 
all the sprouts except one fi'om each eye removed. It 
was not necessax-y to handle the pieces with extreme 
care. They wei'e transported to the field in flat 
baskets in layers about two pieces deep. The land 
was furi'owed with a Planet Jr , going twice in a 
place, which left a wide, deep furrow. A line was 
then stretched over the center upon which strings 
had been tied 1734 inches apart. The planters took a 
garden ti-owel in one hand, made an excavation under 
the line if needed to plant the piece about five inches 
below the surface, inserted the set with the spi-out 
upright, and with the trowel moved enough of the 
loose earth over the sprout to bury it completely. 
Two sets were placed for each string, thus leaving 
them at distances of 8 % inches. The rows were thi'ee 
feet apart, which would requii-e 20,000 pieces per acre 
nearlj 7 . Twenty bushels of seed were used, the pieces 
averaging less than an ounce each, 
May 13-14 the remaining fertilizer was spread 
mostly upon the rows. May 17 the Planet Jr. was 
run between the rows arranged so as to half-fill the 
furrows. May 24 the same operation was i*epeated 
leaving the sui’face level. May 31 a Hallock weeder 
was run once for each two rows, the horse and driver 
going between. June 7 the same was repeated. June 
15, the plants being too large for the weeder, the 
Planet Jr. ai’ranged as a cultivator was run between 
the rows. The field was so clean and mellow that it 
was not touched again until July 2, when it was again 
cultivated. July 9, 4.13 inches of rain fell within 334 
hours, 3.77 of it within 1% hour. This beat down 
the vines and made the surface very compact. Ax? at¬ 
tempt was made within 48 hours to cultivate again, 
but it could not be done as the ground was completely 
covei'ed with vines. 
Potato beetles were very plentiful The first lai-vm 
were seen June 15. Paris-green, one part, and plaster, 
six parts, were applied by means of a Leggett gun, 
and i*epeated so as to make five times in all, but three 
of the applications were washed off by rain within 24 
hours, including the last one on July 8. After this 
time, it was impossible to walk through the field 
without damaging the vines much more than the in¬ 
sects appeared able to do. No hand work was done 
on the field, which was a constant source of delight 
in its luxuriant dress of dark green foliage, without 
a suggestion of anything other than potatoes in its 
whole extent. 
As I was anxious to sow Cxdmson clover, the crop 
was hai-vested eai-lier than I otherwise would have 
done, August 17 to 27. It was dug with hand foi'ks, 
being appai-ently too valuable to use a Hallock digger, 
which was standing idle. I am inclined to think, 
however, that no more injui’y would have occurred by 
the use of the machine, than was done by the forks, 
