1911. 
3 
CROPS SECURED ON AN ABANDONED 
FARM. 
About 22 years ago my father bought an 83-acre 
river farm. As he had other property we did not 
move on the place, and beyond cutting the grass and 
hauling manure on the property, little was done. 
Meanwhile the property assumed that forlorn and 
“run-down” appearance that many abandoned farms 
get whose owners had made enough to retire to 
town, or had abandoned for lack of help to work. 
Three years ago the place came into my possession, 
and not liking farming I made some efforts to sell 
the place, but from its appearance prospective pur¬ 
chasers said the soil was all “worn out,” and al¬ 
though the land lay in a nice position and quite free 
from stone, I could make no sale. As it was only 
a short distance from town on a good level road, and 
a pleasant place to live, I immediately rebuilt the 
house, put the barns, fences, etc., in good conditon, or 
rebuilt, and moved on the farm. Being an R. F. D. 
carrier I had little time to work the farm beyond 
caring for a large garden. From the results ob¬ 
tained I could see that the soil was not all “worn 
out,” and although the knowing (?) ones assured me 
I could raise nothing on the land until I paid out 
several hundred dollars for fertilizer, lime, etc., I 
decided to test whether the land was 
really worthless, as some would call it, 
for being virtually idle a number of 
years, or for want of being properly 
tilled. 
We did not make a very early or 
promising start as could be desired, but 
Fig. 6 shows a picture of part of 
garden taken the middle of August. 
This piece was plowed late in the Fall 
and in the Spring a good coat of ma¬ 
nure was given and the ground thor¬ 
oughly gone over with a spring-tooth 
harrow. In the foreground are three 
rows of tobacco, planted as an experi¬ 
ment; this was gone through three 
times with the cultivator and part of 
the crop was hoed only twice, and the 
rest only once. Although set out the 
first week of July we had numerous 
leaves measuring 18 inches across, and 
stalks weighing three and a half 
pounds. From near end of rows to 
rail fence is 800 feet, and in this gar¬ 
den were planted and growing straw¬ 
berry plants, cauliflower, tomatoes, pep¬ 
pers, cucumbers, beans, turnips, beets, 
celery, buckwheat, potatoes, cabbage, 
pop and sweet corn and squashes. With 
the exception of the beets and turnips 
the remainder of the crop was above 
the ordinary. Much of my buckwheat 
stood three and four feet high, while 
on another piece I raised muskmelons 
that grew four to five pounds. Fig. 7 
is piece of dent corn planted on an¬ 
other section of the farm about June 9, 
cultivated and hoed only once, cut first 
week in October. The picture was 
taken about three weeks later, after the 
corn had shrunk and many of the tops 
had been broken off by the wind. This 
ground was plowed late, and as we 
were unable to get any manure on the 
ground before planting we used about 
one quart of commercial corn fertilizer 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
A ONE-HORSE FARMER’S VETCH. 
I am emphatically a “one-horse” farmer or less, 
for my one horse does for others more than enough 
to pay for the labor of an extra horse when I need 
two. My land is on the bank of the Merrimac 
River, is generally level and free from stones. It 
would, I suppose, all be called sandy loam, some of 
it much lacking humus, some of it having plenty, but 
all needing lime. It is easy to cultivate, is ideal land 
for corn except when there is witch grass. Witch 
grass makes good hay, if cut early, but is inclined 
to occupy all the best land where there is the most 
humus and leave no room for other crops. There 
is much advice given for conquest of witch grass. 
We are told, too, that we can conquer the evil of 
the world by bringing in the good. My experience 
leads me to think clover will conquer witch grass if 
we will use lime. The articles in The R. N.-Y. 
years ago on “clover,” “clover sickness,” etc., were 
intensely interesting to me. A seed catalogue says 
Winter vetch will grow on poor land and do better 
on good. I thought I would try it on about an 
acre about as poor as any. I bought the seed and 
rye and sowed as directed, having manured lightly. 
I don’t remember the amount of lime I used. I think 
not much over half a ton caustic, a kind I cannot 
hope to cut some next year for hay. One thing more 
interests me. On the rye and vetch which stood until 
the seed was ripe my cow will eat all the vetch and 
much of the rye. I thought rye straw was almost 
worthless for feed. This reminds me of your 
“brevity” on page 1166. james danforth. 
Massachusetts. 
R. N.-Y.—We have reports from a number of 
farmers who started vetch in this way. It did poorly 
at first, but by saving the seed of the plants that did 
grow the farmers were finally able to fit the plant 
to their farms. 
A RURAL DELIVERY MAN’S GARDEN. Fig. 6 
CORN ON AN “ABANDONED” FARM. Fig. 7. 
mixed into a 10-quart pail of poultry droppings pul- handle without a handkerchief over my nose and 
verized. About a small handful was dropped into goggles on my eyes, for I spread it by hand. This 
the furrow, the tarred corn dropped on to this and was in September, 1908. The next season I had a 
covered. f me crop G f rye an( j vetc]l ; n spots on one-half the 
I have no doubt many of our abandoned farms piece. Some of the vetch was good, showing what it 
can be worked with as good success as I have ob- was when it did well. On the other half of the piece 
tamed from my place, but I find that many intend- where I thought the land was about the same the 
ing purchasers of farms are more willing to pay - rye was not quite as good, and no vetch except here 
-i extra high price for farms that are cultivated to and there a few very feeble vines, 
their fullest capacity and require constant attention, A ll of the rye, in which there was much good 
money and correct methods to keep so than to 
purchase an abandoned farm at a much lower price 
and derive all the benefits of working it up to as 
lngh a state of cultivation by their own work and 
methods. This phase of the situation I have noticed 
many times, and have no doubt it can be likened to 
the thoughts of the investors in the get-rich-quick 
vetch, I saved and thrashed by itself, and sowed the 
seed on another piece in September, 1909. This sec¬ 
ond piece I had cultivated more years past and was 
then in better condition for any crop. On this piece 
I had a good crop of rye and lots of vetch, the rye 
as high as my head and the vetch as high as I could 
reach. The rye was not tall enough to hold it up. 
- , - * * a. wv. vv CIO UVJl tel 11 kUv 11 LU UU1U H UU. 
concerns, who by their prosperous appearance and R ot h years I have allowed it to stand for seed. This 
flKnln V r» Otl mnnon _1-_ 1 . _ 
display can induce investors to invest where a less 
inviting but nevertheless more sold chance of suc¬ 
cess would not get a second look. The four children 
in Fig. 6 show what other strong healthy crops 
can be grown on such farms besides corn, grain and 
last Spring I had a second crop of rye and vetch 
on the first piece from seed that sowed itself and 
made a splendid pasture for my cow until into July. 
On the second piece after cutting the vetch was all 
over the piece, and the cow fed on it for weeks and I 
« - v/vw emu Lilt LU\V 1CU Ull 11 IU1 WCCK5 ailU 1 
. ‘ 1U P ,n(llce - The owner of such a farm musf expect or hope for a fine pasture for her there next 
judge for himself what plan to follow in building Spring. Vetch is a new thing about here. No one 
w - p - VAN loan. knows anything about it. I don’t know much, but 
usque lanna Co., Pa. I am enthusiastic. I have sown more this Fall and 
PROTECTION FROM ELECTRIC WIRES. 
On page 1135 an article appears headed “Death 
in the Electric Wire,” the purport of which was to 
show how a farmer in California lost his life through 
his ignorance of the principles of electricity, by 
touching and taking hold of a wire fence which had 
accidentally come in contact with a high potential 
conductor from a distant plant. It also advised what 
to do in order to avoid the awful consequences that 
befel Mr. Vargas. The article though attempting to 
give the reason for the accident, is misleading because 
it gives only half the facts, which, plainly speaking, 
were that not only the wire but also 
the earth was acting as a conductor, and 
when contact with the live wire would 
be death to anyone touching it. A much 
easier and I believe a sure preventive 
of any such accidents would be to have 
a wire run from the fence wire and 
driven into the earth at one or two 
places in a fence, which would make the 
fence the same polarity as the earth. 
In this case a live wire which might 
drop on the fence would make a short 
circuit and burn itself clear of the fence. 
1 his is the mode of safeguarding in 
general use by electrical concerns, and 
would certainly be a safer way than try¬ 
ing to insulate portions of a fence. 
New Jersey. a. b. dow. 
V hile the insulated gaps are all right, 
they are troublesome, and still leave a 
part of the fence charged. The neces¬ 
sary thing to do is to ground the fence 
thoroughly in the neighborhood of any 
high-tension wires that are apt to cross 
it, and this will make insulation unnec- 
sary, and at the same time do the best 
possible thing by giving immediate no¬ 
tice to the power-station in the case of a 
ground, and blowing out the fuse or 
breaker so as to deaden the power-wires. 
A good electrical ground would be made 
by selecting the wettest place in the 
neighborhood (if a pond or tank so 
much the better) and burying in it, or 
deep enough below the surface so that 
it will be always moist, say about 25 
square feet of sheet-metal, and connect¬ 
ing it by a No. 0 or larger galvanized 
wire to all the strands of the fence. The 
connection should be by soldering, and if 
handier of course three or four pieces 
of ordinary fence wire could be used in¬ 
stead of No. 0 . The sheet metal should 
be copper to insure permanency, but an 
old tin roof would last a long while 
under ground. A connection to a pipe 
driven in the ground down to permanent water-line 
would do, if the top end is tinned so that, a soldered 
joint can be made. In short, ground your fence just 
like a lightning-rod, and you will be in no danger 
from power wires so long as they hit the fence first. 
Wisconsin. george w. colles. 
The accident due to the crossing of electric and 
fence wires on page 1135 could have been prevented 
with very little trouble by the following plan, which 
also would avoid any danger from a lightning bolt. 
When setting posts thrust a crowbar down its full 
length every hundred yards. This will usually reach 
permanent moisture. Cut and double a wire long 
enough to reach from bottom of hole to top of post, 
shove this wire down the bolt and tamp with bar. 
When stretching fence staple this ground wire tightly 
across each strand. This will effectually ground the 
fence and will last as long as the posts. All short sec¬ 
tions should be grounded. Several years ago I heard 
of a case where lightning followed an ungrounded 
fence and killed a cow which stood close to the bars, 
though the bolt struck several rods away. Dry wood 
is almost a perfect insulator and wood is not a good 
conductor when wet if the stick is sound. The posts 
which caught fire were probably soggy or green wood. 
I have built nearly two miles of fence grounded as 
above in a regular “lightning infested” place where it 
has struck not only once, but as often as three times 
in the same place. r. 
East Stroudsburg, Pa. 
