1908. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
737 
“UPLIFTING” THE FARMERS. 
On page 739 is an article reprinted from The Out¬ 
look. It is written by a Kansas railroad man. In 
printing it The Outlook says: 
The following letter, sent to president Roosevelt, he 
gives to the public through The Outlook, because he re¬ 
gards it as so important and so well put that its publica¬ 
tion will be of public value. Our agricultural readers do 
not need our indorsement of a letter so indorsed by the 
President of the United States and one so rational 
in its ideals and so human in its spirit that it really 
needs no indorsement.— The Editors. 
If this is really President Roosevelt’s idea of the 
lines along which his commission should work, there 
will he a rude awakening before the investigation is 
finished. Mr. Norton does not tell us in what 
part of the country he worked on a farm, or 
where the farmers he now mentions live. When he 
talks about “the poorest table in the world” and makes 
similar sneering statements about American farmers 
in general, he talks worse than nonsense. Most of 
the really great men this country has produced have 
faced their duty with bodies nourished by this very 
farm food, and character ground out by hard farm 
work. We can take Mr. Norton to 10,000 farm homes 
where The R. N.-Y. is read which would absolutely 
contradict his assertions. 
Such arguments would probably be wasted upon Mr. 
Norton and the editors of The Outlook. There are 
persons who put forward as profound wisdom what 
others know to be laughable ignorance. One oft the 
heaviest curses now resting upon agriculture is the 
fact that theorists and literary gentlemen undertake to 
tell the farmer what he ought to do. They have no 
real sympathy for him, since they cannot put them¬ 
selves in his place or appreciate his struggles or am¬ 
bitions. They can only give cold-blooded and im¬ 
practical suggestions, and no one sees the sneer be¬ 
neath their words quicker than farmers themselves. 
Since the world began this spirit has cropped out again 
and again from the classes which, at heart, despise 
those who are obliged to work with their hands under 
hard and depressing conditions. A French queen, 
when told that the people had no bread, asked why 
they did not eat cake. It is like digging the same 
thought from beneath a century of dust and putting 
it in new words when farmers struggling under a 
mortgage and oppressed in a dozen ways are told to 
have better food and put a bath tub in their house! 
The farmers do not heed this sort of criticism—they 
resent it. Some of the advice these people give would 
be helpful if these “thinkers” knew how to give it. 
They are so lacking in real sympathy and kindly 
feeling that the farmers who need help regard such 
criticism as hateful. The harm of all this comes 
from the fact that these so-called “thinkers” have in¬ 
fluence in shaping legislation. What they say is often 
taken to represent the true need of “agriculture.” 
Every public and private scamp who has fattened 
through unfair legislation upon the farmers will be 
heartily in favor of having the farmer make his table 
“the altar of the household deities” and keep him right 
at this form of devotion for fear that he might ask 
why he gets so little of the price of what he sells. 
We believe in compulsory education, and we would 
like to see a fair test applied to Mr. Norton, the 
editors of The Outlook and other literary gentlemen 
before they undertake to “uplift the farmer.” \Ve 
would take away their comfortable chairs and their 
pleasant incomes, take them right by the overalls, 
and put them down on a back farm. We would saddle 
them with a good-sized mortgage, deny them the 
ability to borrow sufficient capital, and punch them 
up with an honorable ambition to provide for their 
family and educate their children. After being held 
down to this for a few years the poorly disguised 
contempt which they now hold for a farmer would be 
changed to the highest admiration for a man in whom 
they would recognize a superior. How we would 
like to turn them out at daybreak to milk a dozen 
cows before breakfast, then have them plow through 
the forenoon, ride an Acme harrow over a stony field 
through the afternoon and then milk those cows again, 
all the time tantalized by the thought that lack of 
capital prevented their doing better. After that form 
of education would they find fault with a farmer’s 
food, care whether they slept outdoors or in a barn, 
or complain about a lack of fresh air? Not much! 
It would be the greatest thing that could happen to 
them, for it would give them sympathy for those who 
must do this sort of work through all their lives. 
They would then see the folly of their cold-blooded 
“advice,” and they would -be ashamed to scold men 
whose life work they are incapable of carrying out. 
Then they could help “uplift the farmer” so that you 
would think he had wings! As it is they are not half 
as well qualified to tell a farmer what to do as the 
farmer is to tell them how to live! 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—Oliver Dalrymple. who was known as 
the “Bonanza Wheat Farmer” of North Dakota, died 
September 3 at his ranch home at Casselton, North Dakota. 
Mr. Dalrymple lived in St. Paul, hut had gone to his farm 
io superintend the harvesting of his wheat. The Dalrymple 
farm consists of 17 sections, embracing 10,880 acres and 
these lands have been devoted in the main to wheat rais¬ 
ing. The cause of death is given as heart disease super¬ 
induced by old age. . . . The drought in western Penn¬ 
sylvania and West Virginia is reaching serious proportions 
and is causing the suspension of many industries. At 
Creensburg, Pa., several plants of the II. C. Frick Coke 
Company have been compelled to shut down. Farmers are 
hauling water for miles. Streams which have never before 
been known to go dry are so shallow that only here and 
there a stagnant pool i? found. This water is scooped up, 
boiled, and used for domestic purposes. At Johnstown, two 
large reservoirs which have supplied the city with water 
are practically dry. At Morgantown, W. Va., the large 
plant of the American Sheet and 'Pin Plate Company has 
suspended operations on account of the drought. Many 
lumber, coal, and coking industries along Decker’s Creek 
are also idle. . . . With the statement that one-tliird 
of the Stale has been in anarchy for the past year. Gov. 
.1. Frank Ilanl.v of Indiana has ordered an extra session 
of the Legislature to meet in Indianapolis September 18 
for action in the “night rider” troubles of southern In¬ 
diana. The Governor declares the troubles are about to 
recur, as the season for cutting the crop is close at hand. 
. . . Practically the entire business section of Sumner, 
Miss., was destroyed, and one man, A. M. Phipps, lost his 
life in a Are which was discovered in the store building 
occupied by H. II. Polk & Co., September 4. The property 
loss is estimated at $100,000, partly covered by insur¬ 
ance, the buildings destroyed including the recently erected 
Court i louse, a hotel, seven stores and office buildings, and 
several residences. . . . Trains in Manitoba were de¬ 
layed September 2 by washouts. Five passenger trains 
were wrecked, but no one was seriously injured. The 
loss to the company will be from $500,000 to $750,000. 
A gasoline explosion in the basement of the Taylor- 
Palmer garage, in the Back Bay district of Boston, Mass., 
September 0, ruined nearly 80 automobiles and wrecked the 
interior of the building, causing a loss estimated at 
$200,000. None of the seven or eight employees in the 
garage at the time was injured, but two firemen sustained 
painful injuries. . . . The wool house and fertilizer 
plant of Armour & Co., in the Union stock yards, Chicago, 
were destroyed by fire September 0. The buildings were 
five-story brick structures, covering an entire block. The 
fire was the fiercest experienced in the stockyards in 
seven years and attracted an immense crowd of spectators. 
The damage is $500,000. . . . Four persons were 
burned to death September 7 in a fire that gutted two 
buildings occupied by sweatshops at 542-548 Water St., 
New York. The fire was believed to be of incendiary 
origin. ... A large part of the business section of 
Altona, a town in southern Manitoba, was destroyed by 
fire September 7. M’any stores were burned, as well as 
the Bank of Montreal, the Western Canada Land Com¬ 
pany’s block, the Commercial Hotel and the post office. The 
loss is said to be $150,000. . . . September 8 it was 
reported that forest fires in the copper country of north¬ 
ern Michigan extended over a radius of 200 miles. Grand 
Marais, 30 miles up the Lake Superior shore from Duluth, 
was cut off by the flames and from 600 to 1.000 settlers 
were fighting for their lives, with apparently no avenue 
of escape. The little town was penned in, the flames 
rushing toward the lake front rapidly. Many settlers at 
Grand Marais were forced to take to Lake Superior 
in boats, and in a few instances on rafts. An appeal 
for help was sent to Duluth by the steamer America, and 
the United States steamship Gopher with two companies of 
Naval Reserves left for the north shore from Duluth Sep¬ 
tember 8, picking up the settlers found on and along 
the lake. Chisholm, which was entirely destroyed, had 
a population of 7,000. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—William H. Hart of La Grange, 
N. Y., known as the apple king of Dutchess county, has 
filed a petition in bankruptcy with liabilities $45,883 and 
assets consisting of two claims, $2,100 and 2.500 shares 
of stock of the Hygeia. Ice and Storage Company of Pough¬ 
keepsie. Mr. Hart made an assignment on May 5 last and 
endeavored to make a composition with his creditors at 
25 cents on the dollar, but it fell through, as all the cred¬ 
itors did not accept it. Most of his liabilities are on ac¬ 
count of guaranteeing notes of the W. II. Hart Company, 
against which a petition in bankruptcy was filed on March 
4 last. William II. Hart became financially embarrassed 
last Fall owing to the slurrp in prices after he had made 
large purchases of apples on the supposition that the 
apple yield would be short. Hart owes various creditors 
about $60,000. Of this amount $23,000 is secured by 
Hart’s sisters, to whom he has transferred bis one-third 
interest in an apple orchard of 35 acres, said to be the 
finest in Dutchess county, and in Heartsease, the Hart 
homestead at Manchester, N. Y. 
The next annual meeting of the New Jersey State Hor¬ 
ticultural Society will be held in Trenton, January 6 and 
7, 1908; II. G. Taylor, secretary, Riverton, N. .T. 
The Connecticut Milch Goat Keepers’ Association has 
recently been organized, officered as follows: President, 
George W. Smith, Melrose; secretary, Alfred Dixon, West 
Hartford ; treasurer, James A. Smith, Wethersfield. The 
annual dues are 50 cents, and the first Tuesday of February 
in each year is set for the annual meeting. The society 
starts with a small membership, but is thoroughly con¬ 
vinced of the -propriety and the practicality of the utiliza¬ 
tion of the goat for a home milk supply on our farms and 
village premises. The movement will be apart from the 
propagation of Angora goats for mohair. 
LONG ISLAND NOTES. 
On the map the portion of Ixmg Island east from River- 
head looks like a very small affair, two fingers of land 
divided by Peconic Bay and pointing out into the ocean. 
These fingers are about 40 miles long and from two 
to eight miles wide. The entire width of the Island at 
Riverhead is about 15 miles. A considerable part of this sec¬ 
tion is a sandy desolation, covered with scrub oak and 
pine, huckleberry bushes and briers, yet bordering these 
barrens are the lands that produce the famous Long Island 
potatoes and cauliflower, and, it is said, more cabbage 
seed than all the rest of the country put together. The 
north shore has some hills and stones, but the central 
part and south shore are mainly sand and gravel, with 
some heavier land in the vicinity of the Hamptons. 
When I visited this section the latter part of August, 
potato digging was in full blast. In this soil the potato 
digger’does its finest work, leaving all the tubers in sight 
and the land nearly level. Two horses will haul the 
digger, but those who can prefer to use three or four, as it 
hustles the job along and is so much easier for the team. 
The potatoes are put in bags holding about a bushel 
and thus hauled to the shipping station, a much more 
convenient way to load and unload than from barrels or 
in bulk in the wagon box. As soon as the potatoes are 
dug rye is sown, the soil being in prime condition to 
drill or barrow it In. The rye keeps this light soil from 
blowing during Winter and furnishes a mass of stuff to 
plow under in Spring. Most of these farmers like to get 
their potatoes out of the way early, as the early end of 
the cauliflower season is already on hand. The cauliflowers 
are cultivated as long as it is possible to get through the 
rows. A succession is planted, so that the crop will not 
all be ready at once. I saw some very small plants 
scarcely six inches high, but was told that they would 
mature fair heads if steady freezing weather did not 
come too early. Like a cabbage, the cauliflower will stand 
some frost and the cool moist climate of the Island in 
late Fall is ideal for the development of this plant. 
After the heads are partly formed the leaves are tied 
together at the top or broken over toward the center to 
prevent the sun from discoloring the head. When ready 
for market the leaves are cut off even with the top of 
head, which is covered with clean paper. Shipment is 
made in crates or ventilated barrels. 
Here and there are seen farms which show the possi¬ 
bilities of the Island in fruit culture. F. A. Sirrine 
formerly of Jamaica, is now located near Baiting Hollow 
and hast as fine a lot of peach trees as I have seen, clean 
and loaded with fruit. Apples and small fruits thrive 
likewise. There are good opportunities for poultry cul¬ 
ture on the Island, and some of this scrub land can be 
bought cheap. A number of companies have been formed 
to work up land booms, but no one should invest without 
looking the ground over very carefully. w. w. h. 
POSSIBILITIES OF NORTH CAROLINA. 
This is what is known as the Long-leaf belt of North 
Carolina. It was originally settled by the Scotch, on ac¬ 
count of the magnificent growth of the wild pea, which 
prior to the Civil War, grew luxuriantly in this country, 
and therefore was a great range for cattle, sheep, hogs, 
etc. For some years after the war. the only industry 
that was carried on was the turpentine and lumber busi¬ 
ness, no attention being paid to trucking. Since the tim¬ 
ber has become about exhausted the country people have 
turned their attention to farming and trucking, and find 
it a great deal more profitable than was the turnentine or 
lumber business. Our soil is a sandy loam, with a clay 
subsoil, from six inches to three feet deep, and well 
adapted to the growing of lettuce, cabbage, roasting- 
ear corn, canteloupes, cucumbers, and all the other vege¬ 
tables. The grasses and clovers do well here, and as 
this is the home of the cow pea. the soil is susceptible 
to being brought up to the very liighest state of cultiva¬ 
tion. The climate is equable, the Winters are compara¬ 
tively mild; so much so that one of our principal crops, 
lettuce, is grown under cloth. From this vegetable is 
made from $500 to $1,500 an acre. By the fifth of May. 
this year, our crop of lettuce had been shipped and 
brought from $1 to $2.50 per basket, in the New York 
markets. We had been cutting asparagus since the first 
of April and it had sold in New York markers at $3.50 
per dozen for the extra grass. By May 5 we were about 
through shipping peas and they sold for from $1 to $3 
per basket. We began shipping dewberries before the 
last of May. The amount per acre that can be made on 
these crops depends largely on the fertility of (lie soil. 
We find them all very profitable. The dewberry is a very 
profitable crop. So are English peas, canteloupes, roast- 
ing-ear corn, sweet and Irish potatoes, and all the vege¬ 
tables. 
All the fruits grow well here with the exception of the 
Winter apples and sweet cherry. The Paragon and Japan 
chestnuts grow luxuriantly. There is a finer opportunity 
here for good men who understand the dairy business 
than anywhere in the South. All our butter and beef are 
brought down from the North or West. Your subscribers 
no doubt have read what Prof. Massey has said about the 
hay crop of North Carolina. The lands here are such that 
a man can graze cattle eight months in the year. I 
don’t: claim that we have the richest country in the 
South, nor is it the poorest, but my observation' has been 
that it matters not where a man goes, he has to work, 
and work hard, to accumulate anything in this life and 
with our fine climate and soil, and the fine people who 
live here, with the good schools and churches, a man 
can do as well here, and enjoy as good health as any- 
whoro in tlio TTnitod Stiitcs. According to tho rpnsu.s 
of the United States, our foreign born population is less 
than seven per cent. . „ 
Fayetteville, N. C. 
CROP PROSPECTS. 
Wheat, corn and oats are the main crops of grain. 
Wheat is about 20 cents per bushel; corn at husking time 
will be not over 40 cents per bushel, at present 60 cents 
by home demand. I bought oats to-day at 40 cents per 
bushel, but generally 30 cents* is considered a good price 
Jamestown, Kan. r . G p 
There are not as many sheep raised in this county or 
section as should be. There are a few farmers who have 
sheep, but most of them ramble in the mountains, making 
their living as best they can, and at present ! do not 
think are doing well. Besides this, dogs are killing them 
badly I am told, this Summer, there being no protection 
against dogs. ,, AI c 
Flinty, N. C. ’ 
Thrashing is all done; wheat yields from 22 to ”8 bushels 
to the acre Potato digging is in full swing: potatoes 
yield one-half crop in the upper part of York County • 
while in the lower part of the county they have a large 
crop. r rhe soil is being harrowed and rolled to got in the 
best possible order for seeding the wheat for the next 
harvest. _ n T . 
York Co., Pa. ' 
Grass a fair crop; oats half crop, grasshoppers very 
bad some fields totally ruined by them. Corn looking 
w , pII \ 8 o’ ppr cont <-rop - Winter wheat fair. Buckwheat 
about 80 per cent crop, some very good and some very 
poor, on account of long drought. Pastures are burnt bv 
hot sun; farmers are feeding dairy cows green feeds 
Peaches, pears and apples full crop. Fall plowing is 
delayed on account of dry weather. ,, v 
Hornbrook, Pa. 
Potato acreage hero about same as last year, but yield 
will be fully one-third less. Cabbage acreage somewhat 
less than. last year, and heading much poorer, but with 
present, high prices will turn more money to the farmers 
and with less work than last year. Oats are yielding 
very heavily and corn is the best it has been iri years 
Hay was a fair crop. Apples are more plentiful than last 
year, and excellent quality. Fall plowing nearly all fin¬ 
ished, but as it continues so dry there is scarcely any 
wheat or rye sown as yet. , n r 
Phelps, N. Y. 
On 'page 630 you print a letter from a young man in 
Idaho, who wishes some information regarding abandoned 
or partly abandoned farms in New York. In this locality 
there are many farms which are hardly worked at all and 
which often have good buildings and abundant water sup¬ 
ply. On account of lack of farm help in recent years the 
most that is done on many of these farms is to cut what 
grass grows, without seeding. The land is not exhausted 
and could be easily made to produce good crops Land 
here brings from $1(> to $30 per acre. I am located in 
Albany County, about 11 miles from railroad and 18 miles 
from city of Albany. We have telephone and rural mail 
delivery. There are good roads to market. State road part 
way, and others proposed. There is a demand for first- 
class produce. I have some corn growing that will prob¬ 
ably produce 100 bushels per acre. Buckwheat looks fine. 
I do not think either corn or buckwheat will be a very 
large crop through the town. Apples are about 50 per 
cent of last, year’s crop, but pears are more plentiful 
Greenville, N. Y. L , B B . 
All over Wayne County the fruit evaporators are now 
starting up, and preparations made to care for all the 
apples not bought up by the barreled apple men. Usually 
all of the evaporators are in full operation by the middle 
to the 20th of September, but this year many of them will 
not start until later. The small evaporator owners have 
not bought many apples, and are waiting for a more favor¬ 
able outlook. Probably many of them will not start at 
all. The prices being offered for evaporated stock leave 
but a small margin for operating expenses. One local 
buyer has contracted for 28 carloads of evaporated apples 
The bulk of these contracts have been for 5 y 4 cents per 
pound for prime stock, and six cents for whole stock. 
In barreled apples a peculiar condition prevails about 
Wolcott. It is believed that more apples have been sold 
around this section than in all the rest of the Ne”- York 
apple belt. In other sections the buyers are just starting 
out. while in Wolcott the bulk of the crop has been sold • 
a large part of it several weeks. The prices now being 
paid are higher than those paid earlier. Manv orchards 
were sold - for 15 cents per bushel and take everything 
This has now been changed to 20 cents or better ' Several 
orchards have been sold for 30 cents for the picked fruit, 
and 15 cents for the drops. One North Rose dealer who 
rode all one forenoon offering 15 cents was not able to 
get an apple, but in the afternoon he raised his price to 
20 cents and bought 10.000 bushels. There is but little 
demand for Greenings by the barreled apple men. hut 
these will be readily picked up by the canning factory and 
the evaporators, it is expected that picking will begin 
about the 20th of this month , r a” 
Wolcott, N. Y., Sept. 7. 
HOOP AND CEMENT SILO.—In regard to H e hoo 
and cement silos, as asked about in the question from th 
Vermont reader, page 576. So far as I can see tl.e sil 
couhl be built successfully that way, hut on account o 
what it would cost I should say it would be impractical 
It would cost more than it would to build of concrete 
and would not last anything like as long, owin'- to th 
wood being used in its construction. Concrete if bio onl 
thing you can get me to mention for farm buildings o 
any kind. Corn and Alfalfa are the only two c-ops yoi 
can get me to talk about. They are king and queer 
I had a letter from Branch Co.. Mich., saying that t’h 
second crop of Alfalfa was in the barn before the middl 
of the month. The corn was more than four feet hig 
July 4. and it is going out of sight this year, as souther 
Michigan has had an ideal season. It is likely they wil 
get four cuttings of Alfalfa, five or six tour: to the acre fo 
the season. Simply inoculate the land and gel the start 
then keep haying and running U’e cutaway disk ' arro\ 
alternately and the Alfalfa will do the rest. r c \ 
