0&215 
THE RURAL NEW-VORKER 
AUTOMOBILE FARM TRUCKS. 
Il is interesting to know that many of the conveni¬ 
ences and helps which were supposed to belong to 
city society arc now making their way into the coun¬ 
try. Water fixtures in the houses, steam and hot 
water heaters, and many other tilings which r><) years 
ago were rarely found outside a large town are now 
common in many farmhouses. Machinery which was 
thought to he of practical service only on smooth 
city streets may now be found in the country. The 
picture on the first page. Fig. 507, shows a large auto 
truck which does the business for a fruit farm. It is 
shown in actual use at Conyers Manor, Greenwich, 
Conn., carrying peaches to market some eight miles 
distant. This machine has a 50 horse-power engine, 
its maximum speed is 15 miles an hour and its ap¬ 
proximate cost is $4,000. Geo. A. Drew, the super¬ 
intendent of Conyers Manor, is much pleased with 
the machine in every way and says that it is very 
practical and serviceable and takes the place of at least 
six horses. Forty-three barrels of apples can be 
carried with perfect ease. It will carry one hundred 
bushels of potatoes. In the load shown here there 
are. one hundred baskets of peaches, and considerable 
more could have been added. Both trips to market 
are made to count, as returning the truck brings back 
supplies for the farm and its operation. Such a 
truck as this will climb any grade that is found on 
traffic thoroughfares, and ordinary mud has no terror 
for it at all. By means of trucks like these, markets 
are brought close to the farmers, thus insuring a 
quick disposal of the farm products; much labor is 
saved, and much more work can he accomplished for 
less money. _ 
FALL FALLOW OR COVER CROPS. 
Requirements of Varying Location or Climate. 
I have a piece of old pasture wlileli has never Iteen 
plowed. Which is better for me to do, plow In the 
•Spring. or plow In the Kail and sow to rye, and plow 
the r.ve under In the Spring? When should tin 1 rye tie 
sown, and when should II lie plowed under? u. n. n. 
Chenango Co., N. Y. 
On our own farm in Northern New Jersey experi 
ence would lead us to operate as follows: Plow early 
in September, and put at least one ton of lime on the 
furrows. Then harrow thoroughly with spring-tooth 
and Acme and sow rye. The harrowing and the lime 
will break up the old sod and start decay. As our 
soil does not freeze solid until the middle of Decern 
her, the rye has a good chance to grow. In the Spring 
we plow under the rye when about two feet high, pack- 
down hard with a roller and fine the surface. While 
this plan works well as far north as New York City, 
it might he better to follow another plan farther 
north, where the ground freezes earlier. This is un¬ 
derstood fin reading the following: 
I enclose n dipping from a local HI. Lawrence County. 
N. Y., paper, In which It seems as though the plan 
advocated Is at variance with your idea of the necessity 
of ii cover crop in the Fall to save nitrogen. Coming 
from the source It does, I thought perhaps you might 
wish to take Issue with Mr. Cook. o. w. h, 
Vermont. 
The article referred to is by Prof. H. E. Cook, the 
following extracts giving a fair idea of what he ad¬ 
vocates : 
There Is n general disposition to say that our agri¬ 
cultural lands contain lnsu lllelcnt organic matter. I 
think this Is true of our eastern soils taken as a whole, 
hut It Is my opinion that very many of these lands 
lire deficient In humus hut not deficient in organic mat¬ 
ter, that Is, they have plenty of root growth of some sort, 
(piaek grass, or weeds, or perhaps the sod of legitimate 
plant growth, but Hits lias no value In feeding another 
plant until it Inis become thoroughly rotted. In fact, beyond 
the opening up of the soil consequent upon root growth, 
It does a positive damage on the plants which follow. 
. . . The old-fashioned Summer fallow practiced for 
so many years' thoroughly reduced the sod and made 
the soil exceedingly loose and open, and rotted every 
trace of organic matter In It. While the practice luid 
many points of vantage, it had also much that was 
disadvantageous. We lost n crop for n whole season, 
and then. In order to save the readily available plant 
food, it was necessary to sow a Fall crop, either wheat 
or rye, which everyone does not care to do; and further 
more, the exposure of the land during the Slimmer to 
the heat destroyed some of the organic matter. We 
have now found a way of getting the same results ob¬ 
tained from tlu- Summer fallow, without loss of the 
land for a season and without loss of plant food. The 
scheme Is simply as follows: 
Plow the soil six or seven inches deep or soon as 
practicable In the early Fall or late Summer, depending 
upon the amount of moisture In the hind: often the land 
is so dry llinl It cannot be plowed until after Hie Fall 
rains; this hits the disadvantage of shortening up the 
time of working the soil after plowing. Immediately after 
plowing pill on the harrows and give the soil the same 
thorough working which would follow Spring plowing, 
preparatory to planting or sowing. In the course of n 
week, or when convenient, go on again and repent the 
operation. Continue Hils until Winter. Some fields will 
require more work than others, a tough, quaek.v sod more 
than any other sod. The render will readily see the 
advantage at Ibis time of the year for the destruction 
of plant roots. The roots are dormant and so decay 
very quickly. In the Spring, when nature is putting 
forth lis greatest effort to develop the plant, every one 
knows how hard It Is to keep back these grasses and 
weeds, hut in the Fall It Is surprising to see how liltle 
work will reduce the sod. In the Spring, ns soon as the 
land con he harrowed, give It whatever work II may 
need; then jus! before the crop is to he put In, re-plow 
Il a little deeper than in Hie Fall, for corn, one inch 
deeper, for potatoes, perhaps three Inches deeper. If 
there are any spots In the field which are tough and 
bard above other places it will lie profitable to put In 
ii plow and turn them over early in the Spring, and 
then later, when the whole field Is being plowed, they 
will receive again their third treatment with the plow. 
Wc think this is sensible advice for Northern New 
York, though in New Jersey wc prefer the cover crop. 
Prof. Cook is right in saying 1 that many of our soils, 
particularly meadow and pasture lands, contain plenty 
of organic matter but very little humus. Some of us 
have fallen into a had habit of using one name for the 
other—but humus is organic matter thoroughly rotted 
down. That is the only condition in which it will 
feed plants. With our moist and warm Falls and 
with our use of lime the organic - matter which wc 
plow under is well rotted by the middle of December. 
If we did not have some crop like rye growing there 
would he some loss of nitrates. Up on the St. Law¬ 
rence River, however, conditions arc very different. 
Freezing comes a month and perhaps six weeks ear¬ 
lier. The sod is also stronger than with us, and the 
constant working of that plowed ground in that colder 
soil, we believe docs more good than our earlier and 
shorter working and cover crops. Again, we have a 
series of thaws through the Winter, during which 
the rye gets green and seems to start. In the North 
the ground remains frozen and snow-covered all 
through the Winter. Thus a method adapted to one 
latitude will not work so well in another. For exam¬ 
ple, we advocate mulching strawberry plants in Win¬ 
ter. In Northern Michigan this is not necessary, 
since the ground freezes early and remains frozen 
solid until late in Spring. There being no thaw and 
freeze through the Winter the plants are not thrown 
nut and do not need mulching. 
A PORTABLE CHICKEN COOP. 
The little coop shown at big. 508, was hastily 
made of picked up material; four pieces six feet long 
A PORTABLE COOP FOR LITTLE CHICKS. Fio. 508. 
and four inches wide for the frame, with two uprights 
14 inches long nailed to center of two opposite sides, 
and a ridgepole across the top of same. One-inch 
mesh wire netting was tacked to ridgepole, sloping 
down on both sides to frame, and the gable ends 
closed with four orange-box covers Chicks were fed 
and watered through the netting, and a small door 
in one corner let them into a light box at night, and 
for a few weeks they were carried in the barn nights. 
A hoard shelf in the box three inches above bottom 
prevented their piling up and smothering. A cotton 
haycap covered part of one side of wire “roof,” for 
shade, and shelter from sudden showers. This coop 
was light and easily moved, but chicks soon had to 
“creep” when near either of the low sides, so if mak¬ 
ing another 1 would use boards a foot wide, with 
wire netting level on top, and feed and water 
troughs attached to the sides, so all could be moved 
together. I think if I were growing chicks on a much 
larger scale 1 would do it on this plan, as you have 
such perfect control, and they seem happy and con¬ 
tented with a very small part of the earth (about 
one square foot each) and no claim on the North 
Pole. WALTER CLEMENT. 
Michigan. _ 
“FAMILY COST” OF TRANSPORTATION. 
Last year the railroads operating under the Central 
Freight Association” decided to make a 10 per cent 
increase of freight all along the line. Tn order to 
manufacture public opinion, or rather to keep it quiet, 
they issued a little book called a "Freight Primer.” 
So much opposition was made that the proposed 
freight increase was abandoned. Here is one of the 
“lessons” from this "Primer:” 
I.eBHOn xII. The railroad* lran*porl all the food. clothing 
atul furl, consumed bp the average fonillp In the United 
(Hates for Ichh than three cents per dap. According to 
an invent I gall on made by the Government, the average size 
October 23. 
of a family In Hie t'nlted Stales is five persons, anil tin* 
average yearly income of the family is $749.50. Of this 
amount $(199.24 Is expended during the year, divided as 
Food . 
Per Cent. 
44.75 
Clothing. 
. 94.99 
13.58 
Fuel and llgln tug. 
. 38.59 
5.52 
Kent . 
. 118.40 
16.93 
For all other purposes... 
. 134.34 
19.22 
Total . 
.$690.24 
100.00 
The total freight charges for food, clothing, fuel, etc., 
used by this average family, living in any one of our 
central commercial el (lea, coating approximately $4-ltt, 
amounts to $9.90 per year, or less than three centu per 
day. A 10 per cent Increase In freight rates would add 
99 cents to (he annual expense, or lots than one-third 
of one cent per dap. is Hits not an exceedingly small 
price for the wage-earner to pay for steady, well-paid 
employment? Are not freight rales marvelously low in 
(Ids country, rather thnu unreasonably high, as has been 
so often claimed? 
Here we have primer figures that lie. Let us see 
about this "three cents a day.” The twenty-second 
annual report of the Interstate Commission, page 88, 
gives the total freight revenue for all “interstate” 
railroads of the United States for the year ending 
June 30, 1908, as $1,605,119,842. These figures must 
he correct, as they are given voluntarily by the roads 
themselves. Some small railroads that do no inter¬ 
state traffic make no report to the Interstate Com¬ 
mission. Of the interstate revenue given above there 
needs to be deducted an amount for freight that is 
exported. 1 he total freight charges on exported goods 
is licit known. Perhaps they would balance the "intra¬ 
state" charges not known. If not we will allow in 
addition the' 65 odd millions out of our total for "in¬ 
terstate" freight. The population of the United Stales 
in round numbers is eighty millions, or sixteen million 
families, allowing five to a family as before. This 
gives sixteen hundred million dollars freight to be 
paid by sixteen million families, or $100 per family. 
If these figures are correct, then some families arc 
paying more than their share if, as stated in the 
“Primer." "the total freight charges for food, cloth¬ 
ing, fuel, etc., used by this average family, living in 
any one of our central commercial cities, costing ap¬ 
proximately $446, amounts to $9.90 per year or less 
than three cents per day.” Some “freight rates are 
marvelously low in this country” it is true, hut the 
total freight charges are quite an item to some people. 
Again some are “unreasonably high in this country," 
as everyone knows. Instead of three cents per day 
for the average family it looks more like thirty cents. 
If the “average family of the cities" is only paying 
three cents per day, evidently the average family of 
the “country” is paying more than “thirty cents.” 
How much does the average family pay for other 
transportation? The interstate report for 1908 gives 
the passenger revenue on interstate traffic as $506,- 
905,109. Tn round figures, $600,000,000. Transporta¬ 
tion on street railways (census), $300,000,000; trans¬ 
portation by water (census), $200,000,000; trans¬ 
portation by mail (U. S. report 1908), $200,000,000; 
Interurhan and electric lines (census), $100.000.000; 
express, telegraph, and telephone, estimated, $200,- 
000,000. Total other than freight, $1,600,000,000; 
freight, $1,600,000,000; grand total, $3,200,000,000. 
$200 per family is the sum approximately that the 
average family in the United States pays for trans¬ 
portation. 1 his is nearly one third of the income of 
the average family. These figures are given to show 
the great importance of the transportation problem. 
These things we must have in this modern civiliza¬ 
tion. No matter whether we live on the farm or in 
the city we are compelled to use the means of trans¬ 
portation in some of its forms. This is the vital 
problem before the American people to-day. The 
Postal service is operated by the public, hut that is 
only one-sixteenth of the transportation business. 
WHEAT EXPERIMENTS IN OKLAHOMA. 
In 1893, at the Kxpcriment Station of Oklahoma, 
an acre of “virgin" soil was taken for experiments in 
growing wheat. This was the first cultivated crop 
ever grown on the soil. Five crops of wheat were 
grown, and then 'half the acre was still kept in 
wheat without change, while the other half was ma¬ 
nured. In 1898, farm manure at the rate of 15 tons 
per acre was used; in 1899, II tons, and in 1904, 18 
tons. The average of the 11 crops shows an annual 
gain of K.9 bushels of grain and 1,520 pounds of straw 
per acre as the result of manuring. For years West¬ 
ern farmers were told that their “virgin” soil did not 
need manure. We think such advice worked great 
injury to the development of some parts of the West, 
since il encouraged waste. The Oklahoma experiment 
shows just what we expected. All soils, after a few 
years’ cropping, will he helped by the application of 
manure. No man can afford to waste plant food. We 
also believe that in their prejudice against chemical 
fertilizers many western farmers neglect the use of 
potash and phosphoric acid long after the need is felt. 
The West has much to learn from the East in study¬ 
ing the use of chemicals. 
