©18 
selling eggs put down in water-glass at r?0 cents, and 
they are as fresh, as far as I can see, as those 
direct from hen. Any person who will use capital 
can have one-half interest of proceeds, the use of 
74 acres of land, buildings, etc. D. r. b. 
Franklin Co., N. Y. 
This Man Made It Go. 
Mr. Cosgrove’s article is interesting. I consider 
The R. N.-Y.’s reply very unfair to the city man who 
FARM BOYS OF 40 YEARS AGO. Fig. 468. 
intends to make the country his home. Instead of 
giving his first year’s experience, as he should, that 
the beginner may know what to expect, he gives his 
14 years. It may be of interest to the city man to 
hear my first year’s experience on a farm, after 
spending 30 years in the drug business. First, I will 
state what I have thus far gathered. 1 have 202 
bushels of potatoes, 110 bushels of rye, S2 bushels of 
oats, 125 bushels of apples, 20 tons of hay; corn and 
vegetables are still out. I have 11 acres in corn, but 
corn crop is short on account of dry weather. I 
started with $2,700. I own 72 acres of land, all paid 
for. My stock consists of four cows, three heifers, 
two horses, seven hogs, 50 hens and 19 turkeys. I 
came here August 15, 1900, with a determination to 
make it go if possible. I do not know what others 
may think; however, I do know that we will not 
go hungry this coming Winter. If the city man buys 
a farm near a good market and is willing to work, 
uses good judgment, there is no danger that he will 
THE SORREL TREE IN BLOOM. Fio. 409. 
Sec Ruraltsms, page 922. 
not make it a success. He will find reverses the first 
few years, I have had mine, to the benefit of my 
future experience. One thing to remember is that 
others are ready to take advantage of your inex¬ 
perience. c. T. 
Pennsylvania. 
It seems to me a man who thinks he can buy a 
farm and stock it for $2,000 would better obtain some 
figures before he starts. It will cost him for horses, 
T'1-ILC RUFiAL, NEW-YORKER 
vehicles, sleds, cows and tools over $1,000, at the 
very least, and even if he can buy a farm for $1,000 
he would then have all his capital exhausted. One 
of my friends told me once it didn’t cost anything 
for a farmer to raise chickens. If he could see 
our grain bills he would be surprised. f. c. c. 
Maine. _ 
THE DAIRY FARM FERTILITY PROBLEM. 
We are sometimes asked what elements of plant 
food arc lost in dairy farming where the entire milk 
is sold. At the New Jersey Experiment Station ac¬ 
curate records are kept showing how much milk is 
sold and what grain is bought. During the year be¬ 
tween April 1, 1905, and April 1, 1906, 34 cows gave 
217,661.6 pounds of milk. Figured at the average 
analysis, this means that the milk took away from 
the farm 1,240 pounds of nitrogen, 416 of phosphoric 
acid and 348 pounds of potash. Thus it will be seen that 
about three times as much nitrogen as of potash was sent 
away in the milk. There was a gain in the nitrogen 
through the clover, cow peas and Alfalfa grown on 
the farm, and a gain of all three elements in the pur¬ 
chased feed. The following table shows just what 
this was: 
Phosphoric 
Feeds Pounds Nitrogen Potash acid 
Wheat bran .29,360 722.8 411 827.9 
Brewers’ grains .... 8,500 312.8 73.1 90.1 
Homlnv meal. 4,640 77 36.2 68.1 
Cornmeal . 1,550 29.8 5.3 13 
Cotton-seed, meal ... 2,475 177.2 50.7 70.8 
Distillers’ grains .. .12,360 556.2 38.3 73.4 
Gluten feed .10,045 419.1 37.2 72.4 
Total . 2,344.3 651.8 1,215.7 
It will be seen from this that the chief gain through 
grain feed is nitrogen. There is only half as much 
phosphoric acid, and only about one-quarter as much 
potash added in the grain. That is one reason why 
on most dairy farms where clover is grown potash and 
acid phosphate make an excellent fertilizer, while but 
little nitrogen except that in the manure is needed. 
A FLY-BY-NIGHT APPLE MAN. 
In a recent issue 1 saw a note about the western 
apple market. A man from Chicago came 
here early in the season, giving the name of 
George T. Posey; he looked over the apple 
crop, getting men to buy the crop for $2 per barrel for 
him. Later a man named J. P. Begy came on to 
look out for the packing and shipping. They had 
shipped a number of carloads and a large lot were 
bought, quite a number all packed, when all at once 
Mr. Begy took the cars, writing back after about a 
half day’s ride that he should not come back, and we 
were to look out for the load on the track to pay 
the packers. The men who say they demanded the 
pay at every load got it all right, but I had landed 
52 barrels and had 26 more when they said the car 
was ready to load. The people estimate that they have 
got $800 or $1,000 out of us, as there were a number 
of others who got caught same as I did. The apples 
were shipped to Mr. Posey, but one of the buyers tells 
me that the firm is Golden & Co. Could you tell me 
about this concern? p. T. 
Maine. 
R. N.-Y.—We have never heard of any of these 
apple buyers and do not find their names in the com¬ 
mercial directories. It looks like an old game which 
lias been worked in various parts of the country. The 
buyers are plausible talkers and usually pay for part 
of the fruit to avoid suspicion. 
THE FARMER’S TELEPHONE. 
Farmers get more good out of their telephones than 
almost any other class of patrons do. To them the 
telephone is not only a business convenience but a 
means of social intercourse as well. It has often pro¬ 
tected their property from injury, and even saved the 
lives of their wives and. children. Not long ago a 
farmer was called to his window by the sound of gal¬ 
loping hoofs; and, looking out, saw a pair of run¬ 
away horses dash past, whirling along a buggy con¬ 
taining two frightened and helpless women. Being 
a quick-witted man, he wasted no time in useless at¬ 
tempt at pursuit, but rushed to his telephone and told 
a neighbor living some distance down the road what 
was coming. This neighbor, as the farmer knew, 
had a crew of men employed near his house, and 
when the runaways reached that point they met a 
line of strong and courageous fellows who stopped 
them, rescuing the women from otherwise certain 
death. 
Another man, in whose house a telephone had just 
been placed, found immediate and priceless employ¬ 
ment for it in calling a doctor to attend his only 
son, suddenly stricken with a deadly disease. The 
difference in time between what would have been 
the utmost speed of a mounted messenger and the 
instantaneous summons of the telephone proved to 
be the difference between the saving and the losing of 
that young man’s life. Many isolated sets of farm 
. December 21, 
buildings have been preserved from destruction by 
fire through the use of the telephone, which called 
the neighbors out of their sleep almost as soon as 
the flames were discovered. 
In other ways, less striking but nevertheless 
highly useful, the farmer finds his telephone an in¬ 
valuable assistance. It often happens that his home 
market is glutted with some particular kind of pro¬ 
duce which would obtain quick sales in other places 
a few miles distant. The telephone user soon dis¬ 
covers where these places are. Again, if he is con¬ 
nected with the lines of the general Bell system he can 
have the prices current of the nearest great market 
telephoned to him whenever he desires and thus be 
prepared with a full up-to-date knowledge of the sit¬ 
uation to meet the wily traveling buyer. But these 
advantages are not to he had by the subscriber to a 
A WELL-BRED CORNFIELD. Fig. 470. 
small local company which is connected with nothing 
and runs nowhere—a telephonic island, cut off on 
every side from the mainland of a great national 
system. The farmer who is served by such a com¬ 
pany and knows he is not getting the worth of his 
money must envy the farmer who may at any time be 
put in communication with any place which is 
reached by the inhabitants of New York or Buffalo. 
_F. RICE, JR. 
SEEING THE WEST. 
Last Spring a young man hi New Jersey asked for ad¬ 
vice about a sight-seeing trip through the West. We 
advised him to work his way from place to place as a 
hired man. Now we have his report. You see this young 
man comes back East finally : 
“I have just returned, after an absence of over four 
months. The trip has been a success. I made nearly 
enough money by working to pay my expenses and I 
think the trip will prove a great help to ine in many 
ways. I have seen a great deal of the country and many 
wonderful works of Nature, and also got a good idea of 
the way work is done In the West. On my way out I 
stopped off at Alhauy, Niagara Falls, Buffalo, Cleveland, 
Kansas City and Denver, and on my way home at Colorado 
Springs, Kansas City and the Jamestown Exposition. 1 
arrived at Kansas City July 3 on my way out and went 
THE SEED CORN TESTER. Fig. 471. 
to the Superintendent of the Free Employment Bureau and 
was sent that night with a party of 60 others to lloising- 
ton, Kansas. Long before we arrived at our destination 
the farmers from miles around came to meet us and we 
were all engaged before we arrived at Ifoisington. After 
working at harvesting, thrashing anti plowing in Kansas 
for about two months I went to Elbert, Colo., about 50 
miles south of Denver, where I again worked at harvest¬ 
ing and thrashing. I think the wages during harvest 
were better than ever this year in Kansas. I got $3 a day 
and hoard.” a. w. f. 
