THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Dwarfs ia Western New York. 
Some interesting things were noted at a recent 
visit to the dwarf apple orchard set out about five 
years ago by the New York State Experiment Station 
upon the farm of Albert Wood, Orleans Co., N. Y. 
The Station had recently had all trees labeled as to 
variety and kind of stock budded upon, which makes a 
visit to the orchard much more interesting and in¬ 
structive than heretofore. These trees have been taken 
care of by the most approved western New York 
orchard methods, and begin to show what they will 
do as compared to standard trees under best orchard 
conditions. Mr. Wood has a young standard orchard 
set out one year previously adjoining the dwarf or¬ 
chard. Lady apple is bearing freely upon Paradise, 
whereas the standard trees of same kind have not as 
yet blossomed. Baldwins upon dwarf stocks set five 
years are bearing all trees of that size should carr} r , 
whereas standards of same age and variety are show¬ 
ing no blossoms, and it has apparently been impos¬ 
sible to get Baldwin apples from standard trees until 
about 14 or 15 years of age. Alexander upon Para¬ 
dise and Doucin are, many of them, now carrying all 
the young trees can hold, but are not carrying more 
than standard trees set one year earlier, whereas the 
standards have developed much more fruit-bearing 
surface and could easily carry a much larger crop. 
Some dwarf McIntosh trees were seen carrying a 
good load of fruit at five years old. Having recently 
had the opportunity of seeing two of the three ex¬ 
perimental dwarf orchards set out by the Experiment 
Station, and also seeing fruiting dwarf trees at or¬ 
chard of Geo. T. Powell, of Ghent, N. Y., it looks 
as if they might be valuable to the amateur who wishes 
to grow a large number of varieties upon a limited 
area or to one who wished to ggow exceedingly fine 
and perfect fruit for a special market, the dwarf 
trees being so easily sprayed and thinned and im¬ 
perfect apples picked off so that maturing crops should 
all be perfect specimens. It is yet to be demonstrated 
that a commercial orchard of dwarf trees will prove 
more profitable than standard grown under conditions 
conducive to early bearing. To-day there are many 
instances of close-planted, low-headed apple trees that 
have begun profitable bearing at an age almost as 
early as claimed by the optimistic boomer of dwarf 
apples, and continuing bearing exceedingly profitable 
crops. Standard varieties like Greening, Ben Davis, 
Jonathan, Duchess, Twenty Ounce, Alexander, Maiden 
Blush. Boiken, Bismarck, Rome Beauty, Wagener, Hub- 
bardston, Wealthy and some others will bear profit¬ 
able crops almost as early upon standards as upon 
dwarfs, and I believe if properly handled they would 
prove the most profitable. B. 
USE OF A FARM ROLLER. 
I have a gravel soil which does not form many 
clods, and hence do not use roller for crushing the 
clods, and of course do not need it so badly as they 
need it on land which is apt to get cloddy. But still 
I would not for a moment consider the idea of doing 
without a roller. The principal place for my roller 
is in the preparation of the wheat land. If I plow 
for wheat I like to roll right after the plow, unless 
it is too wet. But I sow my potato field to wheat 
and this I do not plow. I must always firm the soil 
with the roller ahead of the wheat drill, and here 
it is indispensable. I also like to roll the land ahead 
of the corn planter. A roller should never be used 
when the soil is wet. I also like the roller to roll 
down the soil which has been sown to Alfalfa or other 
grass seed in Summer, as it preserves moisture in a 
dry spell. c. r. bashore. 
Pennsylvania. 
When there is not proper tilth in soil and it is 
necessary to crush clods, a roller may be used. When 
ground is deeply plowed—not less than eight inches— 
and becomes excessively wet, a roller may be used in 
the drying-out process. Of course it cannot be used 
until the surface is dry. Its use then tends to restore 
capillarity in the soil and hastens evaporation of the 
excess water. When the ground is shallow plowed, 
a roller should not be used, for the force of the roller 
will then compact the soil to its unbroken base and thus 
defeat the purposes of breaking. A plank drag has 
many of the qualities of a roller. It will aid in 
drying out ground, but will not dry it so quickly as 
a roller, because the drag aids evaporation only .at 
those spots connected with points where the roller 
skims off elevations, leaving an exposed damp sur¬ 
face. Where the drag discharges dry particles into 
low places, capillary attraction is retarded and 
evaporation likewise affected. My observation is that 
a disk harf ow to cut clods, a spring-tooth harrow to 
level, and a spike-tooth harrow to make and retain 
the dust mulch are the implements most generally 
useful. If I were to be deprived of all farm imple¬ 
ments but one, I would retain the spike-tooth harrow. 
Indiana. w. v - ROOKER. 
MOVING PICTURES AT INSTITUTES. 
On page 772 you express surprise that the moving 
pictures had not been used to illustrate agricultural 
and horticultural processes. Prof. Dodson, director 
of the three Louisiana Experiment Stations, has used 
these pictures to illustrate his lectures for several 
years, and I can assure you that they make things 
doubly interesting. He has also brought forth a very 
beautiful illustration which shows better than any¬ 
thing I know of how constant cultivation of the upper 
crust causes moisture to be held in the soil. It is this: 
Take a lump of loaf sugar, then cover it with 
powdered sugar, then submerge a small portion of 
the lump in a cup of coffee. The coffee will rise 
through the lump until it gets to the powdered sugar, 
when capillary attraction will stop, and the coffee 
also. A very amusing incident happened last Fall 
at the annual farmers’ camp meeting at Calhoun. 
John Diamond, the editor of the “Sugar Planters’ 
Journal,” was there, and was showing this illustration 
to every one. After a while he came to me and said: 
“James, I have made an awful big ass out of myself; 
I have been showing Dodson an illustration that the 
man had discovered himself, and he was too modest 
to tell me about it. Some other man in the crowd 
had to take me aside and tell me about it.” Yes, 
Prof. Dodson is not only a very modest man, but he 
is a very thorough up-to-date man. Now that the 
Mexican boll-weevil has reached us, all this alluvial 
country is going into rice growing. It can grow 
splendid rice, but what will the effect be when the 
millions of acres of land along the lower Mississippi 
and its tributaries are planted in rice? Who will eat 
it? SAM H. JAMES. 
Louisiana. 
R. N.-Y.—With bread and meat at present prices, 
all food will be in demand. The same question might 
have been asked 50 years ago with reference to the 
disposal of cotton seed. 
THE WESTERN FREIGHT SITUATION. 
In continuing our record of cases of extortionate 
freight rates, brought before the Interstate Commerce 
Commission, w r e take first the remarkable state of 
affairs in the Far West. A car of ‘beans weighing 
40,000 pounds was sent from Jackson, Mich., to Spo¬ 
kane, Wash. The charges were $1.33 per 100 pounds, 
or $532. The shipper had sent another car of beans 
to Seattle, some 400 miles farther west than Spo¬ 
kane. On this longer shipment the rates were 75 
cents per 100, or $300. Thus it cost $232 more to 
carry the beans 400 less miles. Had these beans 
been hauled from Seattle back to Spokane the rate 
would be 65 cents per 100. Thus the beans could 
have been hauled to the Pacific coast and back to 
Spokane for $1.40 per 100, or $560, which is only 
$28 more than the rate from Jackson to Spokane. 
We give this case so that our Eastern readers may 
understand how the interior Western cities are treated 
as compared with those on the Pacific coast. It is 
one of the hardest problems up before the Interstate 
Commerce Commission, the members having all gone 
West to investigate personally. 'We shall see that 
this question of freight rates strikes deeper than 
mere railroad business, for it largely determines the 
history and development of the West. 
Some people have wondered why that interior west¬ 
ern territory has developed so slowly. The wonder 
is that it has developed at all. When the farmer 
back from the Pacific coast purchases his supplies 
in the East he must pay almost double what his 
farmer competitor near the coast pays. When he 
sells his products in the East the coast farmer gets 
the same Eastern rates as the interior farmer does. 
Or take merchants in Spokane. Their field for dis¬ 
tributing their goods is limited by a very small cir¬ 
cle. In fact the merchants of Seattle sell right up 
to the doors of Spokane. The railroads claim that 
they cannot make the same rates to Spokane that 
they do to the coast cities, for the rates to the coast 
cities are competitive rates with ocean carriers. This 
fact is true, of course, as regards freight from the 
Atlantic coast, but from as far west as Michigan 
the argument has little force. From all territory be¬ 
tween the Atlantic Ocean and the Missouri River to 
Spokane the rate on many articles is the same. In 
the high-class articles especially this statement ap¬ 
plies, and when a less rate is charged from the Mis¬ 
sissippi Valley points than from Atlantic coast points 
the difference is slight. The Commission recently 
made a slight reduction on Spokane rates, but that 
only seems to have intensified the fight, for interior 
cities farther east, viz., Salt Lake City, Denver and 
others, are at a greater disadvantage than before. 
Another reason the railroads give for higher rates 
to the interior and Rocky Mountain country is that 
that section of country is thinly settled. That seems 
like adding insult to injury. One reason that in¬ 
September 18 , 
terior is thinly settled is because of those very ex¬ 
orbitant rates. It is said that Spokane gave the 
right of way for five miles through the city and half 
a million dollars to Mr. Hill to get his road to come 
their way, with the understanding, implied of course, 
that Spokane was to get “coast” rates, and after the 
road was built the same old higher rates applied, and 
have applied ever since. It is reasonable to believe 
that if the present coast rates were to be given to 
all that interior territory, there would be such an in¬ 
crease of traffic that the profits would exceed those of 
the present. 
The Commission has had this case under in¬ 
vestigation before, but has held that the railroads 
are justified in their rates, basing the decision on the 
law as interpreted by the Supreme Court in several 
important decisions. Were the Commission to reduce 
these transcontinental rates materially, the railroads 
would surely carry the question to the Supreme Court, 
with the well-known result. It seems strange that a 
people of our intelligence will allow a situation where 
one-half of our whole territory must be left to de¬ 
velop slowly for lack of transportation facilities, and 
be powerless to do anything. Some of those Western 
people are talking seriously of State ownership. Ore¬ 
gon is without railroads, except for a fringe around 
her borders, and that fringe is the Southern Pacific 
system. There is a section of territory in central 
Oregon the size of Ohio without a single railroad. 
That section is said to be as fertile as is Ohio, but 
it remains undeveloped except as a grazing country. 
The farmers can grow no crop but what can walk 
to market. No other capital builds roads in that 
territory, for there would be no outlet except with 
the Harriman lines, and when it came to make traffic 
agreements with the Harriman lines, that system 
•would demand the lion’s share in the division of 
charges. In consequence it would be only a short 
time before the road would be bankrupt, and then 
Mr. Harriman "would get it at his own price. So 
they have a situation where one railroad “king” will 
not build and where no other capital dare builcL 
THE QUESTION OF RAILROAD FIRES. 
I am glad you have taken up the subject of damages 
from railroad fires. It is a subject of vital interest 
to many of our farmers, for much of the damage 
suffered from fires caused by the operation of rail¬ 
roads must be borne by the abutting land owner, or 
occupant, for the reason that he is not able in many 
cases to prove that the railroad company, or its em¬ 
ployees, are negligent. Under the laws of New York, 
a railroad company is only required to use due care 
to prevent fires, and the use by the company of the 
most approved known means to prevent sparks or 
live coals from their engines causing injuries, ab¬ 
solves the company from liability in case of damage 
occasioned by fire communicated by such sparks or 
live coals. In fact, before damages can be recovered 
from a railroad company for fires communicated from 
its engines, it must be proven that the company is in 
some respect negligent. Such negligence, even though 
it exists, cannot always be proven against the com¬ 
pany, and yet the burden of making that proof is 
upon the owner of the property destroyed. 
Even though a railroad company may have negli¬ 
gently set fire to property on the lands of an abutting 
owner, it is not liable to the owner of lands not 
abutting for damages from fire which burns from the 
company’s right of way over property of abutting 
owners or to lands beyond it. In other words, if a 
fire from a railroad should burn 10 trees extending 
directly from the railroad in a straight line, one rod 
apart for 10 rods, the company, if negligent, would 
be liable for the damage to all the trees if owned 
by one man; but if the rive trees farthest from the 
railroad were on lands owned by another man whose 
lands do not extend to the railroad, the owner of 
the farthest trees could not recover damages. These 
laws are wrong, and can only be changed by act of 
the Legislature. The damages caused by such fires 
should not be borne by the owners of the property 
alone, but should be borne equally by all users of the 
railroad, and to that end the railroads should pay 
the damages and take such losses under consideration 
in making their traffic rates, in the same manner that 
they must provide for all other losses incident to op¬ 
erating the line. Our laws should be so amended that 
it would not be necessary to prove negligence on the 
part of the railroad company before a recovery can be 
had, and the company should be made liable for all 
damages caused by fire from their engines to abutting 
property and property beyond where it goes as one 
continuous fire from the right of way or point where 
the fire was set. The R. N.-Y. can perform a pub¬ 
lic good, if not a duty, by advocating such changes 
in our laws and using its great influence in procuring 
the necessary legislation. H. G. 
Central New York. 
