1907. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
721 
VALUE OF THE MANURE SPREADER. 
One of the machines that have changed farming in . 
the Western States is the manure spreader. Probably 
few eastern farmers realize how the use of a good 
spreader has changed farm history by encouraging the 
economical use of farm manures. In many places the 
manure pile was once regarded as a nuisance. The 
old story of the man who moved his barn rather than 
more the larger manure pile is not such a great ex¬ 
aggeration as some of us think. The trouble was to 
handle the manure by hand labor. On a large farm 
it was practically impossible to handle manure with 
hand forks. As a result, much of it was wasted and 
the farm was not properly fertilized. The manure 
spreader changed all this because the horses did the 
work formerly done by hand. In some cases cars run 
on steel tracks carry the manure from the stable and 
dump it directly into the spreader. This encouraged 
the plan of daily spreading. The manure was put just 
where it was needed, and put on far more evenly than 
could have been done by hand. This has given a new 
value to manure, and increased the productive power 
of farms where the spreader was properly used. As 
part of the argument in favor of the spreader we are 
told that it makes a better use of the manure. This 
question from one of our readers in Vermont brings 
out the point often discussed when spreaders are men¬ 
tioned : 
IIow. much more value, If any, is a ton of manure when 
spread by a manure spreader than when spread by the 
average hired man? I mean on land that is plowed and 
where the manure will be harrowed in or on land to be 
plowed. 
We can all understand that a ton of manure evenly 
spread so that every part of the soil was covered would 
be more effective than where it is thrown out in 
chunks. How much more is it worth? We would like 
to have this discussed by those who use the spreaders. 
FARM HELP FROM THE CITY . 
This year we have had rather more than the usual 
number of calls from city young men who think they 
would like to be farmers. The usual plan is for these 
men to offer to “work” for a farmer during their 
month’s vacation. We have located several, and most 
of them came back finding fault with the farmer be¬ 
cause he was slow, old-fashioned and not up-to-date. 
It is remarkable how free some of these young fellows 
are to criticize men who have earned home and com¬ 
petence, and reared and educated children out of the 
proceeds from a farm. It will not hurt them to hear 
the other side. We asked a well-known farmer if he 
wanted to take such a man, and here is his reply: 
I am sorry to say I can do nothing for him at this time. 
I have had two of these fellows this season; the first I 
kept two nights and one day. He earned about 40 cents 
and had $1 worth of accommodation ; he was only a stum¬ 
bling block in the road to progress. I also had a young 
man from Brooklyn one month ; apparently what he learned 
was how to watch me and loaf, and gather fresh eggs and 
suck them. I believe 1 won’t try any more city chaps 
this season. 
We do not blame him. The trouble with many of 
these city workers is that they do not realize that farm¬ 
ing is a skilled occupation. A clerk who does nothing 
but write figures or sell goods over a counter is not 
called upon to exercise half the brain energy that is 
necessary in farm work. What business man in town 
would want a farmer to come and enjoy a picnic in 
his office or store? Yet, let us hear all sides of this 
farm labor question. Here is a letter from a reader 
in Pennsylvania : 
You must have an easier time with farm help than 
most farmers, or you would not have answered that young 
man as you did on page 072. If a man is young and of 
good habits and really anxious to work there are plenty 
of farmers who would be only too ready to teach him and 
pay him at the same time, it would probably surprise him 
to find how much he did not know; still youth and 
strength, good habits and a willingness to work are what 
farmers want these days. 
Perhaps it is not because we have an easier time, 
but because we have had more experience with city 
workers. It is to be regretted that farm labor is so 
hard to obtain, but we still think that a farrher ought 
not to be expected to pay a green hand full wages and 
train him at the same time. No other business can do 
that and live. _ 
THE FENCE WIRE QUESTION. 
Two years ago The R. N.-Y. began a campaign 
for better fence wire. Before this we bought samples 
of different makes of fence and put them up side by 
side on our own farm. Others had already been put 
there. All the samples began to rust rapidly, some 
more than others, and some wires in the same fence 
ahead of those joined to them. Reports come pouring 
in from all over the country, all telling the same story 
of fences worthless after a few years of use. Partly 
as a result of this the Department of Agriculture be¬ 
gan an investigation of wire and its manufacture. We 
secured many samples, which were sent to Washington 
for examination. Professor A. L. Cushman, who had 
charge of the work, concluded that the chief trouble 
lay in the process of manufacture. He believed that 
the most common reason for rapid rusting was an 
electric action caused by impurities in the metal. It 
seemed that in spite of all that has been stated on the 
subject just what takes place when a bright strip of 
iron becomes coated with rust is still a subject of dis¬ 
pute. There could be little improvement in fence wire 
until the cause of this rusting was known, because 
no one can suggest a true remedy without knowing the 
cause. Professor Cushman now seems to have demon¬ 
strated two things—that rusting is caused by an elec¬ 
tric action, and that certain substances, notably chromic 
acid, will prevent rapid rusting. Working from this 
basis there is hope that we can obtain a better quality 
of fence wire, or obtain a paint or covering that will 
give us better protection. It would seem that some 
fence wire is carelessly made. While the metal is in a 
liquid state, manganese is added to it. When this is 
not properly distributed all through the metal the 
wire in a fence becomes a weak electric battery, inviting 
a rapid development of rust. This is overcome when 
the metal is made as free as possible from impurities, 
or when these impurities are thoroughly mixed ail 
through. We must look to the manufacturers there¬ 
fore to give us a better wire. A way must also be 
found to use a paint or protector containing some form 
of chromic acid. These experiments appear to demon¬ 
strate that it is possible to make a better quality of 
wire, and we shall start the campaign once more. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—Bail bonds aggregating between $3,000,000 
and $7,500,000 must be furnished by the Standard Oil 
Company of Indiana before the supersedeas asked for will 
be issued by the United States Circuit Court of Appeals. 
Without the supersedeas the Government will be at liberty 
to levy on the property for execution under the judgment of 
$29,240,000 returned against the company in Judge K. M. 
Landis’s court. The amount of the bonds to be required 
was plainly indicated by Judge Grosscup at a conference 
DOTSIiOME HARMONY, THE COW BEHIND THE SUIT. 
Fig. 353. 
held in Chicago, September 10, between the attorneys for 
the company and the Government. Under the tentative 
arrangement there will be two bonds. One.of these will be 
for $2,000,000 cash and furnished by a surety company, 
and the other will be what is known as a forthcoming bond 
to cover the value of the Whiting plant. ... A $100,- 
000 shortage was discovered September 11 in the accounts 
of the State Tax Commissioner in New Orleans. This is the 
third defalcation in six months in the Louisiana State Tax 
Department. The two previous shortages totalled $100,000. 
. . . Chester B. Runyan, the defaulting teller who 
stole $96,000 from the Windsor Trust Company, was sen¬ 
tenced to serve seven years at hard labor in Sing Sing 
I’rison by Judge Whitman, in Part III of General Sessions, 
New York, September 11. Because of Runyan’s action in 
testifying against Mrs. Laura Carter, to whom he gave a 
part of the stolen money, he had expected a lighter sentence, 
but he did not appear greatly moved when the judge an¬ 
nounced his decision.Twenty-five persons were 
killed and about 30 others were injured in a wreck on the 
Boston and Maine Railroad at West Canaan, 60 miles north 
of Concord, N. II., September 15. It was a head-on collision 
between a freight and a passenger train, the latter being 
bound from Quebec for Boston. The cause of the accident, 
according to a statement given out by the railroad officials 
was the misunderstanding of orders sent to the crew of 
the freight. An order had been issued giving the freight a 
clear right of way north out of Canaan, but this order was 
rescinded by a second one, which called for the freight to 
take a siding at Canaan and allow the passenger train the 
right of way. In some unexplained manner the orders were 
confused, the freight crew getting the first one and going 
on through Canaan while the passenger train got a clearance 
from White River Junction, Vt., on the north. The trains 
came together in a dense fog. So thick was the fog that 
the engine crews say they didn't get sight of each other 
until they were only 200 feet apart. ... A terrific ex¬ 
plosion, September 15, blew out practically every window 
in Cheboygan, Mich., and covered the people attending 
services in the Congregational Church with plaster from 
the ceiling. A warehouse belonging to the Post Hardware 
Company which contained fourteen packages of dynamite 
blew up, killing Lewis Ebrich, 18 years old ; Bert Simmons, 
18, and Clifford Simmons, 17 years old. The three boys 
were going hunting. They walked along the railroad track, 
shooting at whatever they saw. They came to a wood about 
a mile from town and noticing a small house decided to 
shoot at it. The first bullet fired exploded the dynamite. 
With the shock of the explosion hundreds ran to the scene, 
where they found the torn bodies of the victims hanging from 
limbs of trees. A hole twenty feet across was torn in the 
ground where the house had stood. . * . The Attorney- 
General of Illinois has given out the decision that any per¬ 
son may do a job of plumbing in his own home without 
taking out a State license, which the law requires in the 
case of professional plumbers. . . . The taking of testi¬ 
mony from officers and directors of the Standard Oil Com¬ 
pany of New Jersey for use in the United States Circuit 
Court in St. Louis was begun September 17 in the Post 
Office building, New York, before Franklin Ferris of Missouri, 
special referee appointed by the Judge of the Federal Court. 
The evidence gathered here by Frank B. Kellogg, special 
prosecutor for the Government, will be introduced in the 
St. Louis suit, which was brought against the Standard 
Oil Company of New Jersey and seventy other subsidiary 
corporations by Attorney-General Moody to secure the dis¬ 
solution of the oil trust because of its imputed violation of 
the Sherman act. The hearing was set in New York because 
of the proximity of the central offices of the Standard and 
the Immediate availability of the books and records of the 
concern. In the course of the day C. G. Fay, acting comp¬ 
troller of the Standard Company, gave out the figures of the 
trust’s earnings for seven years dating from 1899. He said 
that in that time the company’s gross assets increased from 
$200,791,620, to $371,664,531. The dividends of the seven 
years were $308,359,430. Whatever increase In the assets 
of the Standard Company there might have been was 
derived from the Increased value of the earnings of nine¬ 
teen original subsidiaries in which the Standard had a con¬ 
trolling holding. Such increased value was treated by the 
holding corporation as an asset and not computed in the 
statement of total profits. In the Standard Oil Company of 
Indiana, which was recently fined $29,240,000 by Judge 
Landis at Chicago, the Standard Oil Company owns 9,990 
shares, said Fay.Alexander Dalyzorax, a coal- 
passer employed by the New York Central Railroad at 
Ilighbridge,- put his can of coffee, September 17, on top of 
one of the supports for the 22,000 volt wire supplying elec¬ 
tricity for both traffic and lighting along the Harlem River 
division because the other workmen had been stealing his 
lunch. When he climbed up to get it his feet slipped and 
he landed on the feed wire. His body had to be pried loose 
with shovels. . . . The merchants, business men and 
farmers in Mississippi have arisen in protest against the 
trust suit filed by the District Attorney of Warren County 
against the Gulf Express Company and the order of the 
court based upon that suit. The District Attorney charged 
violation of the anti-trust law of the State by consolidating 
a large number of cotton compresses into one company. The 
Circuit Court issued the order of injunction against the 
company, forbidding it to do business, and this closed the 
presses owned and operated by it. Apparently it was not 
seen that this closure would hit the farmer harder than it 
did the trust. The cotton which began pouring into Jackson, 
Greenville, Meridian and Vicksburg could not be pressed and 
could not be marketed, and the farmers and merchants have 
seen themselves unable to sell with the price of cotton falling, 
so that every day that their cotton remained unpressed it 
lost value in addition to the cost of storage exacted. The 
cotton exchanges of the various Mississippi towns are taking 
action lo call for modification of the court’s order that will 
allow the cotton presses to do business again. . •. . An 
interpretation of a recent ruling by the Interstate Commerce 
Commission has just been made by that body to the effect 
that the burden is on the shipper to establish the legality 
of the shipping rates quoted to him by a railroad officer, 
and that if either the shipper knowingly accepts or a rail¬ 
road knowingly grants a rate lower than the published one 
the action is a violation of the law and subject to penalty. 
This interpretation has been made plain by a letter of E. A. 
Mosley, secretary of the commission, to E. II. Walcott, 
secretary of the Boston Merchants’ Association. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The annual meeting of the Vir¬ 
ginia State Horticultural Society will be held at Staunton, 
Va., December 4-5 ; secretary Walter Whately, Crozet, Va. 
The Armours of Chicago will handle no more green fruit 
from California. They have had a virtual monopoly for 
12 years and have made a profit of five millions in that time. 
Recently, owing to action by the Interstate Commerce 
Commission, the Southern and Union Pacific roads have 
bought 6,000 refrigerator cars, and Mr. Ilarriman has served 
notice on the Armour Company that after October 1 his 
roads will not need any more of its cars to handle California 
fruit shipments. _ 
CROP NOTES. 
Buyers are offering $5 per barrel for McIntosh Red apples 
now. Apple crop is short and poor. Buyers are paying $12 
to $14 for hay, and take it in the barn ; hay on the market 
at Burlington is $15 to $18. July milk was $1.12 to $1.16, 
four per cent basis; August milk probably $1.24 at creamery. 
Fotato crop light and rot is feared ; worth 80 cents to $1 
now. G. M. HAZARD. 
Vermont. 
Hay crop is good and secured in good shape. Wheat good, 
some turning 30 bushels per acre;average 18 bushels, quality 
good. Some orchards of apples are well loaded, but as a 
general crop about 40 per cent; peaches very poor and light 
crop. One man has a crop of about 4.000 bushels and his 
neighbors on either side with large orchards will not have 
any. and there is not 100 more bushels within five miles 
of him. The raspberry and strawberry crop was also very 
light. Corn promises very large as also does the bean crop; 
potatoes while not many in the hill, are of good size and 
good quality. G. N. D. 
Shelbyville, Mich._ 
COUNTY FAIRS AND TRAVELING SHOWS 
Never have I read the full details of the way our county 
fairs are conducted as in that talk of B. L. Hathaway on 
page 662. I have realized this state of affairs for some time, 
but to get one of these “traveling showmen’’ to admit it, 
was more than I expected. He says that our fairs are not 
supported by the State, but by the racing associations doing 
business in the State, and they send out horses to win back 
the money they give in premiums which is the inducement 
offered the farmer to exhibit, and then when he goes to the 
expense and trouble of getting his stock in condition he finds 
some one of these traveling showmen there who has a bunch 
that he takes from one fair to another, and he gets the pre¬ 
mium. Can we, as county exhibitors, compete with everyone 
regardless of where they come from? For example, can 
the farmers take the time to breed poultry that would score 
as high as those of U. It. Fishel or I. C. Hawkins, who make 
a specialty of fine fowls? You may say yes, if they know 
how, but are they justified in doing it when they are working 
for different results? These people breed entirely for show, 
but the farmer breeds for greater production, which very often 
destroys fancy points. Now, my chickens have made me over 
their expenses $4.68 each a year. If I should take a pen of 
them to our fair would they get a premium if thev did not 
score as high as the “traveling showman’s?” I like to see 
fancy stock, it is certainly very pleasing to the eye, but let us 
consider performance. Yes, give us the sire with his daugh¬ 
ters, that their merit show up in the milk pail. Mr. Hatha¬ 
way says that some county fairs rival those of the State 
and gives the credit to the traveling men. As to the charge 
of dishonesty and fakers a person need only go to the fairs to 
see for himself. Since reading the article I will confess my 
ignorance of the object of a county fair, for I was under the 
impression they were held and run on a legitimate basis for 
the farmers and country people, but like the Hope Farm man 
with blasting stone. I throw up my hands and take a back 
seat, or get out altogether. s. p. hainlhy. 
