480 
road drag should secure a copy of Farmers’ Bulletin 
321 from the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Wash¬ 
ington, D. C. It describes the use of the drag as well 
as its construction. edward r. minns. 
CORN AFTER VETCH. 
The soil on which this corn was grown is mainly 
sand with a slight admixture of clay. It has been run 
in corn for many years, not being suitable for wheat 
and clover. A stand of clover could not be had on it. 
Some years when drought prevailed the corn made 
failures. The yields varied from 20 to 30 bushels per 
acre in favorable years. Twenty-live acres w T ere sown 
in vetch, and this crop turned under the following 
year, and corn planted; although the season was rather 
dry the average yield reached 90 bushels. The second 
year, owing to severe storms destroying much of the 
young corn, the yield was only 72 bushels. Alfalfa 
sown on part of this field made remaixable growth, 
where in years before neither it nor clover could get 
a hold. On another field where part of the soil was 
“gumbo” the vetch changed the texture of this waxy 
soil so as to make it more loose and friable. Pota¬ 
toes were planted in 1909 that yielded over 200 bushels 
per acre, and on the “gumbo” portions the yields were 
far better than on the sandy. Extensive tests will be 
made in various lines this season with a view to 
demonstrate the value of vetch on all classes of soils. 
A picture of the cornfield is shown at Fig. 168. 
Indiana. J. H. haynes. 
ALFALFA GROWING IN MICHIGAN. 
The farmers of Michigan are much interested at 
present in the growing of Alfalfa. Doubtless a large 
acreage will be sown the coming Spring and Summer, 
and the recital of a few of the writer’s observations 
may be of interest to the readers of The R. N.-Y. 
Undoubtedly most of the sowings of Alfalfa that have 
been made up to the present time have proven failures, 
and yet there are instances in nearly every county in 
the State where successful experiments have been 
made. In this neighborhood there is not a single 
good stand of Alfalfa that has been sown two years, 
but four or five miles away there are a number of 
meadows that yield splendid crops of Alfalfa hay. 
One can get a stand of Alfalfa upon much of the 
land in the vicinity of Petoskey without any special 
effort, and here and there in the upper peninsula the 
crop is exceedingly heavy. L. M. Geismar, who has 
charge of the upper peninsula experiment station, 
made three sowings in May, 1909, and cut. very heavy 
crops in August following. J. W. Helme, of Adrian. 
Mich., has adopted the practice of sowing in April 
and is rewarded by a liberal cutting of hay the first 
year. But both of these men have soil that is ex¬ 
ceedingly rich. Alfalfa will not yield a crop of hay 
the first year on the average Michigan farm, no matter 
how early it is sown. The fact that this plant sue-' 
ceeds so well in some sections and absolutely refuses 
to survive in others has led to careful investigation 
in order to discover if possible the essentials of a good 
Alfalfa soil, and we are coming to think that this 
plant will thrive on any soil where the water level is 
not too near the surface, provided the land is reason¬ 
ably fertile, contains plenty of lime and has the proper 
nitrogen-fixing bacteria. If the soil is very fertile, 
the nitrogen-fixing bacteria do not seem necessary. 
Mr. Geismar told me that they grew Alfalfa at the 
upper peninsula station for six years before they dis¬ 
covered any nodules on the roots, though they looked 
for them very carefully. The soil at the station is a 
dark gravelly loam and abounding in lime. 
The liming of soils for Alfalfa is becoming a com¬ 
mon practice and its utility would seem beyond ques¬ 
tion. Artificial inoculation is accomplished here partly 
by nitral cultures secured from the experiment station 
and partly from soil taken from an Alfalfa field or 
from a place where Sweet clover is growing. Where 
the soil is favorable to the growth of Alfalfa, it is not 
at all difficult to secure a stand. The first successful 
field in this county was sown with wheat in the Fall. 
For several years three crops were harvested each sea¬ 
son, and this without any special effort previously 
made to prepare the soil. There are a number of 
good stands where the Alfalfa was sown in the Spring 
with factory peas. Here and there a man has sown 
with oats and succeeded. But it is not considered a 
good crop to grow when seeding with Alfalfa. Doubt¬ 
less the sowing of the seed without a nurse crop will 
give the best results, provided the soil is not light 
enough to blow and the seed bed has been properly 
prepared. A resident of our county cut a quantity of 
Alfalfa last Fall for seed. The yield was light and 
the venture hardly paid, though the quality of the 
seed was very good and the straw from which it was 
thrashed was of some value. 
Alfalfa hay is so valuable and the yield is so liberal 
that it will pay anyone who has reason to believe he 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
possesses the right soil to try to grow it. He can 
add lime artificially and can inoculate his soil with 
the proper bacteria with a small outlay of cash, and 
with the crop growing successfully he will have added 
considerably to the value of his farm. It takes a good 
deal of power to plow an Alfalfa sod, but it can be 
done and the vegetable matter which will be added 
to the soil is of great value. I send herewith a pic¬ 
ture of some corn grown on an Alfalfa sod, Fig. 167. 
The cutworms took nearly all of the first planting. 
Accordingly the field was harrowed over and a second 
planting made about the middle of June. The man 
who grew the corn resides at Fremont, Mich. He 
planted it in drills 3^ feet apart and about eight 
inches apart in the drill. It was a medium variety 
of white dent, but it grew to an enormous size. In 
fact the owner told me that from four acres of it he 
filled a silo with a capacity of 100 tons. 
Oceana Co., Mich. w. f. taylor. 
THE STORY OF A CANNING FACTORY. 
In the Fall of 1907 an enterprising man representing 
the Hastings Industrial Co., of Chicago, came to our 
village to induce the people of this vicinity to invest in 
a canning factory. As this community is situated in 
the Muskingum Valley, surrounded on every side by 
fairly fertile soil, with excellent transportation facili¬ 
ties, he had little difficulty in selling 78 shares at a par 
value of $100 each; $6800 of this sum was to be paid 
the Industrial Company for erecting and equipping a 
large canning factory. The money was paid in install¬ 
ments, the final installment paid on completion of 
building. The stockholders allowed the company to 
put on a metal roof, not realizing the effect of the 
steam and fumes generated in canning on the under 
side of the roof, and accepted the building and equip- 
A CLUMP OF MASSACHUSETTS VETCH. Fig. 166. 
ment. Of the remaining $1,000, $r>00 was paid for a 
site and $500 placed in the treasury. As canning time 
drew near the directors of the new canning company 
found out from the manager they had hired to run 
the factory that they would need more money than was 
in the treasury to buy cans, labels, etc., and pay labor. 
As the farmers had agreed in the contracts to wait 
for their money for tomatoes until canned goods were 
sold, they did not have to consider this item. As the 
shares of the company were non-assessable, a number 
of the stockholders got together and signed personal 
notes for $50 each, this money to be used to run the 
factory, and the factory to pay these notes and interest 
out of first money received for canned goods. The 
factory did well the first season, although it had but 
a small acreage. The producers were paid in full, 
and- if it had not been for a bad debt (afterward col¬ 
lected) they would have paid the $50 notes in full. 
As it was, the directors of the factory becoming angry 
at the bank in which the notes were placed, took their 
own money, paid the notes in full, and put them in 
another bank for their full amount to raise money for 
the next year. A mortgage for $1500 was placed 
against the factory in the Spring of 1909 to add needed 
improvements, a large acreage of both beans and toma¬ 
toes had been contracted, and everything seemed pros¬ 
perous. The contracts this year instead of making 
an indefinite time for paying, stated that one-half of 
the money was to be paid the producers on November 
15 and the other half on December 15 of that year. 
All labor bills were paid promptly. 
The factory had a big run, canning about 600 cases 
(two dozen cans) of beans and about 5,000 cases of 
tomatoes. The beans were sold early at a loss to get 
money for running expenses. November 15 came, but 
the factory postponed paying farmers with the plea 
that tomatoes were advancing in price and they would 
lose money to sell them. When December 15 came 
and no money, and the factory was threatened with 
suit, the directors claimed that a suit would wreck the 
factory and if they were just left alone they would 
April 15, 
pay everything in full. At the annual meeting in 
February, 1910, the fact was brought out that the fac¬ 
tory was actually in debt $10,990, or twice what the 
most pessimistic person had imagined. It developed 
that the directors and the local bank (part of whose 
directors were directors in the canning factory) had 
loaned the factory $5,000 and covered everything with 
chattel mortgages, including canned goods. It only 
took a little industrious figuring to convince part of 
the farmers that if these mortgages were paid first 
there “wouldn’t be any core” left, and so about half 
of the producers went to law, the other half through 
fear of the law, indifference or the selfish feeling that 
they would profit by the labor of others without the 
expenses, or other motives, standing aloof. The can¬ 
ning company finally compromised our case by paying 
us 2iy 2 cents on the dollar and all our expenses. The 
half that did not join us and sue did not nor ever will 
receive a cent. The factory and equipment was sold 
the other day for about $1750. At the last financial 
statement given out the company had nearly $19,000 in 
liabilities (including stock) and its final assets were 
less than $7,000, and an assignee's fee and two law¬ 
yers’ bills were taken out of that before it became net, 
also an unknown amount of accrued interest. The 
stockholders, of course, lost everything. m. g. N. 
Washington Co., O. 
R. N.-Y.—In printing the above or similar reports 
we have no wish to discourage any legitimate enter¬ 
prise or cooperative investment. We want the facts— 
just as they are, without any trimming. We shall do 
our best to prevent our people from being loaded up 
with factories, horses or anything else for which they 
must pay an inflated value. We shall also, if we can, 
prevent them from going into schemes which are con¬ 
trolled by outsiders. On the other hand if reports of 
successful enterprises of this sort can be made—we 
want them. 
THE JOY IN “BACK TO THE LAND.” 
I read with great interest all that is said in your 
paper about the blessings of living in the country, and 
in every case I agree, as far as I am personally con¬ 
cerned, but at the same time I often wonder if it 
would not do us all some good if we could hear from 
some one who came direct out from a chair in the 
city and tackled a farm job. If it could be written 
up well, but before everything, truthfully, I wonder 
if it would not help bring out the better folks, I 
mean those who are making a success of their work, 
and not those who come out to the farm thinking that 
it will be “a cinch,” and just clear picking cold dol¬ 
lars all the time. Let them know that it is a case of 
just digging from 5 a. m. to 7 p. m., Winter in¬ 
cluded, and that looking after live stock, well, is 
worse than any slave-driving boss, till you learn to 
love the animals. But as well let them know the 
other side of the picture, and tell them what it 
really means to have a good dog love you if you are 
dressed up or not; what it means to have your horses 
rub noses with you whenever you come to see them, 
and if further proof is wanted, let a man just for 
the fun of it go to work and dig a hole any old place 
on the farm and tell himself that for all anyone else 
has anything to say, he can dig away the whole 
place. He is the boss. That is the part of the life 
that is fun to most of us. There is no fun in work¬ 
ing a team of horses all day, 7 a. m. to 6 p. m., in 
the deep mud with scraper, making a pond, and then 
have to put them in the stable, heat up a lot of water, 
and wash them down well and dry them. But there 
is fun in having them pick out your handkerchief 
while you are rubbing them, and to see their legs 
shine clean and bright and what is more, from hang¬ 
ing their heads and being almost dead with work 
when you bring them in, they look bright and happy, 
and eat what you give them with relish. Now that is 
the pleasant side of farming, and all this writing has 
been done just to get the idea out, that if some one 
that could write well would bring that side out, we 
would get the best there was in the city out in the; 
country. c. a. graham. 
R. N.-Y.—Mr. Graham himself has brought this side; 
out. Others might use more words, but he has made 
the idea clear. We shall soon begin the publication of 
about as true and pointed a “back-to-the-land” story as 
ever got into print. The demand is for facts—plain 
facts. You will get a bunch of such facts in this story. 
All through history, at regular intervals, people have 
started immigrations from one part of the country to 
another. We have had several in this country. No 
one could stop or direct them. They have made great 
changes in history. Just now there is a movement 
from town and city to the country, and it is likely to 
have a greater influence upon our nation’s future than 
any previous movement of population. No one can 
head it off, but we hope to do our share of pointing out 
just what the farm offers. The man who expects to get 
anything that is worth while out of the change must be 
prepared to put a good valuation on just sue* 1 “joy” 
as Mr. Graham mentions. 
