©60 
The vines made a fair growth. Owing to the drought, 
we can hardly call it a normal season. 
The bugs made their appearance early, and were 
very numerous: the first slugs were found June 22 
and were treated by being brushed off with a paddle 
into a large tin “catcher.” They were held in check 
by hand picking and by using a powder, dusted on 
vines when damp. The season was very dry and 
plants suffered for want of rain. The blight ap¬ 
peared on these vines the last week in July, and on 
August 15 the vines were entirely dead and dry. The 
yield from this field was 20 bushels in all, 14 bushels 
No. 1, and six bushels small. They were quite fair, 
UQ rot. This field was a fair sample of many in 
this vicinity this season. Now for the chickens. The 
same week that I finished planting the field described 
above I planted four rows, 90 feet long, of Mort¬ 
gage Lifter potatoes in a yard containing 50 early 
hatched chicks. The yard was distant from the field 
aboui 200 feet; the soil a little more inclined toward 
gravel, and full of witch grass. In planting I used 
fine litter from henhouse floor in place of fer¬ 
tilizer. The only cultivation these vines received, 
aside from the scratching of the chicks, was one hand- 
hoeing. The chicks attended to the bugs, and I was 
never able to find one on the vines. No blight ap¬ 
peared, and on August 15, when photo shown in 
Fig. 447 was taken, they were in full blossom. The 
vines were still green when killed by frost Septem¬ 
ber 15. All chicks were removed from the yard 
September 1. 
The potatoes were dug September 18. The four 
rows yielded 5J^ bushels in all; 4V> No. 1, and 1% 
small; they were veiy smooth and handsome. My 
opinion is that these potatoes grew naturally; the 
vines were not weakened by the attacks of insects, 
and the pores of the leaves were not clogged with 
insect slime, powders or pastes. Therefore the vines 
were free from blight. When digging these pota¬ 
toes I found several “seed balls,” which are very 
rarely seen since the appearance of the Potato beetle. 
The beetles exude a dark liquid ot slime. Has any¬ 
one ever studied its effect upon the foliage of the 
potato plant? I believe it to be deleterious, and think 
if the Potato beetle could be exterminated, the blight 
would go with it. Besides picking the bugs the 
chickens cleaned out the witch grass; I found hardly 
a trace of it when digging the potatoes. I have been 
experimenting on combining chicks with growing 
crops for the past four years and, so far, am well 
satisfied with the results. l. h. p. 
Orange, Mass. 
FARMERS’ EXCHANGE OF MONMOUTH CO., 
NEW JERSEY. 
This county has become a heavy producer of pota¬ 
toes. The output has increased 100 per cent in the 
last 15 years. The acreage and yield are both large. 
In 1907 there were sold 600,000 barrels. The past year, 
unfavorable conditions have cut the crop to 350,000 
barrels, but the price obtained has been such as to 
make the return to the farmer nearly as great as last 
year. This came through the higher price prevail¬ 
ing everywhere because of the general small crop 
n it only, but because the farmers selling through an 
exchange of their own, have been able largely to 
eliminate the middlemen’s profits. 
There were some 25 local buyers, who in the past 
handled the bulk of the crop. Five or six, however, 
did the bulk of the business. For the most part they 
were good men, but they naturally bought as low as 
they could. They in turn sold to others, about 10 
per cent of the crop to “track buyers,” men who rep¬ 
resented dealers in various cities. Last March the 
farmers organized a produce exchange, with an auth¬ 
orized capital of $100,000, to buy or sell anything the 
farmer uses or grows, and to do business anywhere. 
Under this incorporation, any place in New Jersey, or 
other convenient locality, can form a branch without 
the expense of incorporation. The shares are $5 each, 
and no man can own more than 20. The stockholders 
elect 12 directors who elect the officers and appoint 
the manager and local agents. The main office is at 
Freehold; $7,000 of stock has been paid in. On this 
they have equipped their offices, and since the or¬ 
ganization, have done $400,000 worth of business. As 
yet they have done very little buying except to buy 
$40,000 worth of seed potatoes. As it is estimated that 
in the district in which the Exchange now does busi¬ 
ness, there is used annually between $250,000 and $300,- 
000 worth of fertilizers and seeds other than potatoes, 
it would seem as if here was a field well worth look¬ 
ing after, which the Exchange is now taking hold of. 
There are 400 members. For these were sold last 
year 1,000 carloads of potatoes, beside other produce, 
earning, it is estimated, to its members not less than 
$ 50 , 000 . They have received on an average for the 
potato crop $1.75 per barrel, which has been sold in 
11 different States and 50 different cities. They were 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
so fortunate as to secure as manager a business man 
who has been for 11 years engaged in the trade. He 
is in direct telegraph and telephone communication 
with all shipping points, as well as the local stations. 
When produce is brought in, it is inspected, graded 
and sent where the market reports for the day indi¬ 
cate to be the best shipping points, and sold direct to 
large dealers. Sometimes the different markets will 
vary on a day’s sale from 10 to 25 cents a barrel. 
This price is averaged for all of the same grade, and 
the price announced the day following and the farmers 
paid on presentation of their shipping receipts. For 
this service, where the Exchange docs the selling, a 
charge is made of 10 cents per barrel. Small lots of 
produce of various sorts is sometimes sent to com¬ 
mission houses, of which the Exchange has a select 
list, and the goods are sent as above, where the price 
and demand seem best, according to the direct daily 
reports received. The farmer pays the regular 10 
per cent commission, the Exchange does all the busi¬ 
ness, and for this receives its pay by a reduction from 
the commission houses to three per cent when sent to 
store and five per cent when sold on pier, the latter 
saving cartage. To-day the Exchange could pay for 
all equipment and expense, return all money paid in, 
and have a surplus left as a dividend in stock. At the 
annual meeting, it is expected the surplus will be left 
in the business, so well satisfied are the farmers with 
the venture. Better freight rates and transportation 
facilities have been secured. 1 he officials of the two 
great railroads, the Pennsylvania and New Jersey 
Central, have come “kowtowing” to the Exchange. 
They have had no difficulty, the manager tells me, in 
recovering returns for damages to shipments, or those 
not promptly and properly delivered. 1 he latter facts 
are alone evidences of the value of a strong organiza¬ 
tion. 
They have, too, the advantage of being ab’e to sup¬ 
ply, from a number of shippers, on short notice, 
graded, guaranteed goods, just as the purchaser wants, 
a matter that puts them in a position to secure the 
best trade. True, they have had difficulties, in the 
way of strong opposition, and vilification from local 
buyers as well as poor goods, and, aias, lack of sup¬ 
port sometimes by the farmers themselves. Yet their 
success has been marked this first initiatory year. 
Wherein does it lie? First, in securing a man familiar 
with the business as a manager. Second, in not try¬ 
ing to do too much at the start on a limited capital. 
Third, the scanty general supply, and good price, en¬ 
abled them to get a foothold more easily than in a year 
of large crops and low prices. Incidentally it is of in¬ 
terest to note that farms about Freehold are in de¬ 
mand at from $100 to $150 an acre with some sales as 
high as $200. EDWARD VAN ALSTYNE. 
SETTLING A FARM ESTATE. 
More About That Family Arrangement. 
W. A. Sherman’s story, page 817, c.f a man called 
John, who, after the death of his parents, takes upon 
his shoulders an $8,000 farm, together with obliga¬ 
tions for $6,000, upon which he must pay interest, 
probably awoke deep sympathy in the hearts of many 
readers. So many of us know similar cases, or are 
perhaps in John’s shoes, or in those of one of the 
other seven children, his brothers and sisters. It was 
a story well worth telling, bringing out forcibly, as 
it does, two or three points which root deep in family 
life on the farm. Note how much of sentiment there 
is. John wants those particular acres, that house and 
those barns because they were his father’s and his 
childhood home. Each brother and sister wants one 
of their number to “keep the old place.” They are 
a “friendly family,” set upon making “a liberal, 
friendly settlement.” Where else are home and fam¬ 
ily ties so strong as on the farm? Where else would 
a man think of taking such a staggering business 
proposition upon his shoulders? Where is the city 
family who would urge a man to undertake a business 
venture in which the odds would be so against him, 
and all because of love for the old business stand or 
the old desks and chairs? 
Of course John, having but $2,000 in the world, 
ought never to have taken upon himself the clearing 
of an $8,000 farm from debt in the present state of 
agricultural affairs. From a child he should have 
known that but one-eighth of his father’s property 
would be his by inheritance. When he came to the 
age at which his brothers left the farm he should 
have said: “Now I stand equal with the rest as to 
my duty to my parents and my outlook into the 
future.” Then he should have made his choice. The 
opportunity to run an $8,000 farm and to bring a 
wife into the big comfortably furnished old hou:3 
was something. But as all who know of these things 
must admit, it was not wholly privilege. Old people 
of force and character are not angels as the infirmi¬ 
ties of age creep on, as judgment becomes clouded, 
sensibilities abnormally acute regarding old privileges, 
December 12, 
and as weakness and loss of zest cause the grass¬ 
hopper weight to appear burdensome. None of the 
other seven can know this as John and his wife 
know it. When “the children come home” old fires 
leap into brightness, and for the moment everything 
has the old-time cheer. 
But all the time John and his wife ought to have 
had their eyes, courageously and without fear, upon 
the day when they must make a fresh start upon 
only so much as was actually their own. How could 
he expect, being one of eight, to begin where his 
father left off? An $8,000 farm cannot usually be 
successfully cut up into smaller holdings. But John 
and his wife had long years in which to think .the 
matter out. They had enjoyed a favorable chance to 
prove themselves successful farm managers. If John 
has some sturdy sons as his father had, he may be 
able some day to buy back the old place. But with¬ 
out inherited capital every business must begin small 
and work up. Usually it thrives far better that way. 
But the old acres! The dearly loved place! What 
tenderly inbeating heartstrings we country-breds have 
for locality and associations! Everything roots that 
comes in contact with the soil. The English had it 
strongly, and long ago they arranged that the eldest 
son must always have the property, that being the 
only way to keep estates intact. No doubt every 
effort was made to provide as best the parents could 
for the other members of the flock. It led to frugal 
spending, this look ahead. The mother must have her 
little invested means to pass on to the daughters. 
The better type of Englishmen ho’d themselves re¬ 
sponsible for the maintenance of the unmarried 
women of their line, and these in turn yield a sort 
of homage and devotion to the men of their house¬ 
hold which has an element almost comic to our'enter¬ 
prising, clear-eyed wage-earners of the gentle sex. 
On the whole, our way is best, but let us better it 
by teaching our boys that business is business, not 
so good a thing as sentiment, but to be respected. 
A family settlement is a business affair. Let each 
man look well to the ways of his own household; 
let him see his goal a’ ead, know what income he can 
rely upon bringing in and decide soberly how best to 
direct his individual efforts. Was John’s devotion 
to his parents’ declining years “a false idea of duty?” 
From t' e beginning there has been a blessing upon 
such labors, else the fifth commandment would never 
have been written. As to any ore of John’s city 
brothers being more able than he to buy the old 
place—that depends. If one began and remained a 
“motorman on the neighboring trolley,” if he had 
lived and spent as most motormen, most shop hands 
and wage-earners do, how near to the $8,000 has 
he saved up? It would depend very much upon what 
sort of head was on his shoulders, and upon just that 
item John’s future rests. R. ithamar. 
A FARMER’S TRIP.—I took a trip in October through 
Susquehanna, Wyoming and Lackawanna counties, Pa., 
going across io Laeeyville in Wyoming Co to tlie Lehigh 
Valley Railroad, thence up the Susquehanna River to 
Waverly, N. V., thence to Binghamton, so home. 1 had a 
chance to talk with a good many farmers, and one ques¬ 
tion I was sure to ask those I talked with in Pennsyl¬ 
vania was “IIow do you like the new primary law?” The 
arswer was always the same, “Good, good,” so 1 say has¬ 
ten the day when we vote direct in New York State. One 
man I was well acquainted with asked me, “Going to elect 
Gov. Hughes again?” I said, “Sure.” “Well, you won’t; 
the politicians are all against him ; he won’t be elected.” 
I said, “I am a citizen of New York State, and one of 
her common people; wait till after election and see what 
we do.” As for U. S. Senator, I would like to see 
Roosevelt and Governor Hughes get these, so I would vote 
for them. I found a good crop of apples on my trip, 
and it seemed to me that they were selling low, 60 cents 
per 100 pounds for hand-picked apples delivered, and some 
farmers were hauling as far as six miles at that price. 
The potato crop is poor; I did not hear one farmer say 
he had a fair crop along the Susquehanna River. I saw 
some fields of cabbage, hut was told it was very poor on 
account of the drought. The corn crop was good, silos full 
and some places more than they could get in. I did not 
see many young cattle, but milch cows are thin; some 
few had fed grain since August, and the cows were in 
fairly good flesh. It always looked foolish to me to starve 
milch cows, a case of pennywise and pound foolish. I 
saw several fields of wheat, most of it just coming up, 
showing it had been sown late or had been caught by the 
drought, every one complaining of the scarcity of water 
and hoping it might rain soon. Most of the farmers are 
hopeful and hoping for a better season next year. 1, like 
the Hope Farm man, found no place quite like home. 
Our potatoes turned out much better than we expected 
when we commenced digging, and prices stayed up much 
better than last year. Our cows are doing fairly well 
and we are getting a little more for our milk than we 
did last Winter, but feed is high, so it cuts down the 
profits. There are a few farms for sale near us, but price 
of land is advancing. e. p. b. 
Broome Co., N. Y. 
To add to their other good qualities it is said that 
sheep will eat the roots of quack grass and gnaw the 
blades into the ground. A small quantity of these roots 
under the name of “dog grass” is imported every year. 
There is no sale for the American roots. 
