1908. 
747 
“TRAPS” FOR AUTOMOBILES. 
One of our readers in northern New York, where autos 
are appearing, asks us to find for him what automobile 
“traps” are. There are said to he places where such 
things are used to catch the scorchers. We can usually 
find almost anything by going to R. N.-Y. readers. So we 
sent to places where autos are in common use. Among 
others we struck the following good-natured humorist: 
We are very much afraid that you have come to 
the* wrong place for the information you desire, as 
we own an automobile. The writer believes that if 
The R. N.-Y. would charge $3 per year for its paper, 
which it is well worth, and with this surplus money, 
purchase and'give to each of the readers who are 
now complaining so bitterly about the violators of 
■ 
' 
A BRACE OF PERSIARINO SIIEEP. Fig. 350. 
the speed law, a nice little runabout or roadster car, 
The R. N.-Y. would never hear from these same 
people again about speed laws or automobile trips, 
save to condemn them as an unnecessary nuisance. 
We believe that by writing to some of your readers 
at a place on the south side of Long Island, you will 
get all the information you desire in regard to auto¬ 
mobile traps, as the writer while on a trip to the 
farm, passed through this village. His brother fol¬ 
lowing in a second car was held up and mulcted to 
the tune of $15 when the speedometer showed 12 
miles an hour on a wide road with no houses within 
one-quarter of a mile, and only one other vehicle 
in sight. This trap consisted of two telephone sta¬ 
tions placed in trees at a distance of 1-16 of a mile 
apart, where the time was taken of each 
passing automobile and telephoned to the 
station ahead, when if the speed exceeded 
10 miles an hour, the driver was hauled up 
before an imaginary court and fined accord¬ 
ing to the clothes he wore and the size of his 
car. The writer understands that the few 
cars that now pass through this section of 
the island have one of the party get out in 
front and with a red flag walk in front of 
their car until this town has been passed. 
Some even have been reported to have 
stopped their engines and pushed their cars 
through this place, which is said still to be 
on the map. v. R. s. 
R. N.-Y.—We fear there would be so 
many calls for the autos that the price would 
have to be raised again. A few farmers 
own autos, but the great majority of them 
dodge out of their way as they come along 
the road. 
ABOUT MUSHROOM GROWING. 
I wish to know what success has attended the 
cultivation and marketing of mushrooms in this 
country. You may be familiar with the book¬ 
let, “How to Make Money in Mushrooms,” and 
the book, “Secrets of Mushroom Growing Simply 
Explained.” I have read both, but am not yet 
convinced that it is the profitable business which 
the publisher claims it is. E. T. 
Illinois. 
Of all horticultural undertakings the growing 
of mushrooms may be regarded as the most uncer¬ 
tain and least likely to return fair profits for the 
labor and expense involved, though there is an occa¬ 
sional brilliant exception to the rule. It is also 
true that “beginner’s luck” appears to cut an unusual 
figure in the cultivation of this tricky esculent. Ama¬ 
teurs are known to have made remarkable successes 
in their early trials, and to be absolutely unable to 
repeat them, even with the most scrupulous care. 
Much has of late been learned in regard to mush¬ 
room culture, but it is far from being reduced to a 
workable science. The writer has made many 
humiliating failures and a few successes that did not 
appear particularly well deserved. He would as soon 
undertake the management of an airship for profit 
as mushroom growing. Persons succeed who have 
special aptitude for the business in either instance. 
THE RURAb NEW-YORKER 
The promises made in the literature of mushroom 
spawn growers or dealers may be disregarded by the 
amateur. While there are business possibilities in 
mushroom growing the work should be cautiously 
approached and experiments made with as little out¬ 
lay as possible. Contrary to general opinion mush¬ 
room growing, even on the smallest commercial scale, 
is heavy and dirty work, little suited for delicate 
persons. Small beds may be grown in. convenient 
outhouses or suitable cellars as an interesting diver¬ 
sion, but the yield seldom has great market value. 
soil is right the Red clover will follow after the 
rye and give a good crop for plowing under the next 
Spring, or you can pasture the clover during the Fall 
with sheep or hogs. With this rotation you can plow 
under the clover for potatoes, and if the clover does 
well you can use less and less fertilizer on the potatoes. 
Your present plan means too much working of the 
ROTATION OF POTATOES AND CLOVER. 
I have a small farm of 40 acres, mostly a sandy, gravelly 
soil with perhaps a little clay mixture, but very much 
run down, and I wish to make a potato farm out of it 
on a two-years’ rotation, so as to give me 20 acres of pota¬ 
toes each year. As I was a little late in buying the place 
last Spring I only got in about 15 acres. I planted Car¬ 
man in the latter part of May, and some others the first 
week in June. I have dug some for our table use, and 
they are still small, not over the size of walnuts. How 
long can I let them grow in Fall to seed the piece to rye. 
which I wish to cut for hay in Spring? Will it make 
good hay for horses, and at what time is it best cut for 
hay? After hay is off I wish to disk it and sow to Crim¬ 
son clover and Cow-horn turnips to fertilize the potatoes. 
That is the rotation that I figured out. I never worked 
on a farm before. The Crimson clover came up very poor¬ 
ly, the clover seeded in June has hardly three inches of 
growth as yet. I would have sown turnips with the clover 
this Spring, but knew nothing about them at that time, 
only found out through The R. N.-Y. If those potatoes 
should remain too small to be salable in the market, could 
I perhaps sell them to some starch factory? s. e. m. 
Wisconsin. 
This seems to be a case of a farmer without ex¬ 
perience starting on wrong plans. Potatoes require 
either a rich soil or heavy fertilizing. No experienced 
grower would expect to start with potatoes on soil 
that is “very much run down,” unless he used at 
least 1,200 pounds of high-grade fertilizer per acre. 
You might raise fair crops of buckwheat, cow peas 
or rye on such soils, but not potatoes. This shows 
how fertilizers can be used to good advantage. By 
using them freely in that poor soil a fair yield could 
be made, and there will be left enough plant food 
to make a good growth of rye and clover—so that a 
fair profit could be made from the start. If the vines 
are still green the potatoes may grow larger, but the 
chances are not good for a marketable crop. 
You do not get the true idea of using Crimson 
clover. This is a cool weather plant, and makes its 
PEACH BORER CAUSES CROWN GAUL. Fig. 352. 
land. Cow peas and turnips or buckwheat and tur¬ 
nips could be sown after cutting the rye and working 
the ground, but it would be more economical to sow 
Red clover in the Spring and let the ground alone. 
THE QUEEN PEACH, NATURAL SIZE. 
See Ruralisms, Page 750. 
Fig. 351, 
best growth in late Summer and Fall. It will not 
thrive in hot weather, and when seeded too early 
grows slowly and often forms seed when only a few 
inches high. You cannot sow it in June and expect 
any profit from its use. We do not believe the 
Crimson will pay you as well as the common Red. 
If we had such a farm in New Jersey and wanted 
to work it into a two-year rotation we would plant 
the potatoes early. Use Irish Cobbler or some 
variety earlier than Carman, and at the start use at 
last 800 pounds of good fertilizer per acre. Get a 
potato planter with a fertilizer attachment. Give the 
potatoes good culture and dig them as early in Sep¬ 
tember as possible. Use a digger, harrow well and 
seed to rye alone. Early the next Spring sow Red 
clover seed on the rye. Cut the rye when the flower 
is in bloom, and cure for hay the same as you would 
Timothy. It makes a fair hay for horses. If the 
THE CONNECTICUT DEER LAW. 
I would like a little space in your paper to let some 
of our brother farmers who are having their crops 
destroyed by deer know what we are doing 
here in Danbury, Conn. In 1905 myself and 
R. D. Knapp, who had farms adjoining, had 
three or four hundred dollars of damage to 
our crops and trees by deer, and were 
obliged to settle for about one-eighth of the 
actual damage, the selectmen sending out 
two politicians who know nothing about our 
crops and trees to appraise the damage. 
When in 1906 the law was passed allowing 
us to kill deer doing actual damage Mr. 
Knapp shot one, and the deputies made a 
great time about it. Since then these same 
politicians have been sent out to appraise 
our damage, and after admitting there was 
damage done they said it was not enough to 
pay for. Now it is almost impossible to 
shoot a deer in the open with a shot gun, 
and as it was impossible to get fair ap¬ 
praisers, we decided to kill the deer. Last 
Monday Mr. Knapp shot a fine buck while 
he was eating his truck. He at once notified 
the game warden, which the law says he shall 
do, and proved to him at once the animal 
was doing damage, and they cut the deer 
open and found nearly a bushel of peas, 
carrots and beets in his stomach. Now the 
county warden and a few would-be sports 
are trying to prosecute Mr. Knapp. Every 
farmer in our town is willing to carry the 
thing as high as they want to go. Are we 
right or wrong? Have we got to have our crops 
destroyed by wild animals which are protected by 
laws made for the benefit of a few would-be sports, 
when our selectmen refuse to help us? 
CHAS. H. BRUNDAGE. 
R. N.-Y.—The statute of Connecticut covering this 
case reads as follows: 
No person shall hunt, kill, attempt to kill, chase, or 
take any deer, buck, doe or fawn in this State during the 
close season; provided, however, that the owner or lessee 
of any real estate may, at any time, on land owned or 
leased by him, kill, by the use of a shotgun, any deer which- 
shall be found destroying or damaging any crop, vege¬ 
table or fruit tree upon said land; the burden of proof 
that any deer found in the possession of any such owner 
or lessee was killed in conformity with the provisions 
of this proviso shall be upon said owner or lessee. 
From the statement made by Mr. Brundage it ap¬ 
pears that Mr. Knapp has kept within the law. We 
advise these farmers to stick to their rights and 
maintain them at any cost. 
