i PHOTO 
Vol. LXVIII No. 4022 
NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 27, 1909. 
WEEKLY, Jl.00 PER YEAR. 
DIRECT NOMINATIONS IN KANSAS. 
Who Have Been “ Stung ? ” 
As a brief statement of the working of the primary 
election law in Kansas, I will say that my entire 
concern in politics is that of. most farmers, viz., a 
desire to have good laws in the statute book and 
good men in office. In both these particulars the 
primary election law is a great help. New York may 
be too far away to be interested in the story of how 
we came to have that law, but it ought to be inter¬ 
ested in the way it works out. For New York, at 
this distance, judging from what its great dailies say 
of it, appears to be under the joint control of its 
professional politicians and its political 
corporations, the same as Kansas used 
to be. For many years they hunted to¬ 
gether here, dividing the spoils of the 
political chase; one got the offices, the 
other got a free hand. At last came a 
revolt that carried into power a reform 
legislature, which gave us an anti-pass 
law, a law reducing railroad fares to 
two cents per mile, and most important 
of all, a primary election law. We have 
had opportunity to use that recent en¬ 
actment in but one campaign. It resulted 
in the nomination of W. R. Stubbs for 
Governor. He was subsequently elected. 
I think no one would claim that Stubbs 
could have secured that nomination in 
a convention of his party (Republican). 
It also resulted in the nomination of J. 
L. Bristow for United States Senatot 
(subsequently elected). Both these nom¬ 
inations were opposed by the “machine’* 
and the corporations, in a campaign that 
stirred the State, and it was the farmers 
who brought them safely through. The 
following named are against the primary 
election law: The underworld; the liquor 
interests; machine politicians; the po¬ 
litical railroads, street car companies, 
water-works companies and the like; 
the political banks and insurance com¬ 
panies; and all the crowd who want to 
buy or sell votes. I repeat that all of 
these are against direct nominations, but 
I don’t at all mean that they comprise 
all the opposition. There are many good 
men on that side who fear the growing 
strength of democracy, and who dread 
every extension of the franchise. The 
invention of gunpowder put big men and 
little men on an equality in battle—one 
could pull a trigger as well as another. 
The primary election law puts big and 
little on an equality politically'—each 
voter has an equal voice in the selection 
of candidates. Farmers, mechanics, business and pro¬ 
fessional men, clerks and day laborers, are not “in 
politics,” as the phrase goes, and when it comes to 
making nominations under the old system, they are 
no match for the professionals of the State House 
and the various court-house and city hall “rings”; 
but they all get a square deal alike when they make 
their nominations in the secrecy of the voting booth. 
Under the new system there is no caucus with its 
tricks and trades to baffle the politically unskilled, no 
delegate to sell them out, no buffer of any sort to 
stand between them and the expression of their de¬ 
sires at the polls. There has been mention in the 
papers of a committee sent to Kansas from New York 
to examine into the working of our primary election 
law. I have wondered who it is that that committee 
represents? If it represents “interests” that find it 
convenient or even necessary to have power lodged 
in the hands of a few; or if it represents a political 
element that seeks safety in befogging local and per¬ 
sonal considerations with the smoke of national 
issues, then look out for a report that Kansas has 
been “stung.” But don’t believe it. The “interests” 
and the “machine” have been stung, but the cause of 
good government in Kansas has been helped. 
Wyandotte Co., Kan. edwin taylor. 
APPLE SEEDLINGS AS GRAFTING STOCK. 
I have three acres of land in sod, and wish to set 
same in apples. I thought of planting corn in the Spring. 
I see much nursery stock which does not come true to 
name. I can get wild apple trees around the lots, and 
good kinds to graft from. Will you advise as to when I 
should set out the wild stock, and when they should be 
grafted, how large a wild tree I should use, and also how 
close to ground they should be grafted? a. j. e. 
Sag Harbor N. Y. 
My land is gravel, rather thin in places, but grows very 
fine apples, especially Baldwins. I wish to set about 200 
or 300 trees this Fall, and I have that amount of wild 
trees in the pasture, ranging from one-half inch to 1% 
inch across, and I do not want to buy trees if I can use 
them. What would you advise me to do? If you would 
use them, would it be best to set them where they are to 
stay, then gra’ft them, or would you set in a row until 
they are started? They will not be much in the way if they 
are set where they are to remain. I have plenty of good 
muck to put around them after they are started. 
Athens. N. Y. w. v. v. r. 
Both these inquirers seem to be looking for the 
same advice, hence one answer will do for both. The 
wild seedlings if strong and thrifty, should make good 
stocks to graft other apples on, but only tho=;e that 
show signs of making strong trees should be used. 
The Doucin or English Paradise stock and the 
dwarfer French Paradise, which are used for dwarf¬ 
ing apples, were wild seedlings, and yet nature had 
reduced them to the shrub form of the wild apple. 
They are perpetuated and kept true dwarfs by grow¬ 
ing them from the layers. Many of the seedlings of 
the fence row show a disposition to become dwarfs, 
and all such should be discarded where standards 
are wanted. 
The pasture seedlings that both A. J. E. and W. V. 
V. R. speak of are no doubt seedlings from cultivated 
fruit arid if so, there will not be many that would 
not make good standard stocks. The trees should be 
graded when dug, set the large ones in 
the same block, and the smaller ones by 
themselves. Dig them carefully so as to 
preserve the roots as much as possible 
and without mangling them. Before 
planting cut off all the bruised ends of 
the roots with a sharp knife, leaving a 
sound clean cut which will soon callus, 
and be ready to send out young roots 
for feeders.' The very best time to dig 
and transplant the trees would be in 
the Fall; dig good big holes, big 
enough to receive all roots without 
crowding, and deep enough to admit of 
three or four inches of good top soil 
in the bottom, and then fill the hole 
with top soil. Mound the earth around 
the tree, and level it again in the 
Spring. If they cannot be planted in 
the Fall, then plant them the very first 
thing in the Spring. These seedlings 
have been growing without cultivation 
and without transplanting and it will be 
a much greater shock for them to be 
dug and transplanted, than it would the 
nursery grown tree, which is handled 
with the idea of transplanting. 
It will be better to let thfcse trees 
grow one year after transplanting, in 
orchard rows, before grafting them, and 
the orchard row, not the nursery row, 
is the place to plant them. When ready 
to graft them, saw off the whole top to 
the height wanted to start the top; split 
with knife or grafting chisel only far 
enough so that the split can be pressed 
apart to receive the graft, put two 
grafts in each stock. The following 
year one of the grafts can be cut away, 
otherwise a crotched tree will be 
formed, and will be liable to split apart 
when of bearing age. These trees 
should make the very hardiest and 
thriftiest bodies for the orchard tree, 
but must be given good clean thorough 
cultivation to keep them growing without check the 
first year after transplanting. Otherwise they may 
never make good stocks. The stock should not be less 
than one-half inch in diameter at place where the 
graft is inserted, but three-quarters inch and up is 
better. _ e. s. black. • 
A SELF-GRAFTED OAK. 
I send you a photograph of a tree which is located 
on my farm near a public road, also in close prox¬ 
imity to the W. E. & H. railway, from Hazelton to 
Wilkes-Barre. This tree is quite a freak of nature. 
The trunk and upright is White oak, and the arm 
extending towards the right is Chestnut oak. The 
picture of this tree was some years ago on exhibition 
at the great Paris Exposition in France. This tree is 
supposed to have been grafted by nature, by the 
Chestnut oak tree falling on the White oak, in such 
THE TURKEY THAT ESCAPED TFIE AX. Fig. 555. 
