602 
June 10, 
in early Spring as long as the land is fr.ozen, then 
let it accumulate in piles, or in the open feed yard as 
well, until about June t, then draw on one large pile. 
The handling of this manure (and the more handling 
the better) will make it fine and assist capillary at¬ 
traction of moisture, or better still, occasionally appiy 
water to top of pile, (not enough to cause leaching) 
to prevent drying out and firefang. Manure kept in 
this way will not lose much of its constituents as 
compared with when applying to “large grass” lands 
for the constituents of the manure when fresh are 
not taken by the grass and it then lies exposed to the 
weather, while the grass docs not derive much benefit 
the first year. It will also be found that the constitu¬ 
ents of the manure kept in such a manner as described 
will be in a very available form as plant food. As 
soon as haying is finished, apply to meadows with 
spreader, and if weather conditions are right, and the 
chances are that they will be, you will be assured 
of a good second crop of hay or a bumper crop the 
following year, or it can be applied to wheat stubble 
to benefit the young clover the following year. 
Eden, N. Y. a. d. b. 
THE STUDENT LABOR PROBLEM. 
A Statement From Dr. L. H. Bailey. 
Part III. 
AN APPEAL TO THE FARMERS OF NEW 
YORK.—This Spring we have issued a letter to 596 
selected farmers in New York State asking their 
cooperation in work of this kind. Out of this number 
less than 25 farmers liave replied, possibly because the 
letter itself was not sufficiently explicit. We, havQ 
great difficulty in finding suitable farms on which 
we can place students. Some of these students desire 
to earn money to help themselves through college, 
and some of them desire experience of farm life. 
Our experience with farmers indicates that they do 
not want students chiefly because they fear that 
students will not make good hired men, and will not 
do as much work as other laborers. I know that 
students have not always fulfilled what was expected 
of them, and some of them may not have deserved 
much help; but, on the other hand, some of our 
earnest students complain of the treatment they have 
received from farmers. My contention is that we 
need a new point of view on the part of farmers as 
well as on the part of students and others. A good 
number of farmers in the State have taken students 
year after year and have found the experience on the 
whole to be valuable and helpful to themselves; and 
the students are fully appreciative of the help they 
have received. One farmer writes, “We have had 
student helpers for seven Summers and they were a 
source of joy to ns.” It is alwaj’S an advantage to a 
farm family to have a bright energetic young man 
in the home for a time, bringing in a different set of 
ideas and a different point of view on life. 
Following is the greater part of the letter that we 
sent. 
We are addressing to you our third annual letter con¬ 
cerning student help tor Summer work. The State College 
of Agriculture wishes to maintain a permanent list of the 
best managed farms in the State manned by fair-dealing 
men, where we can place young men who want experience 
and who at the same time need to earn something to apply 
on their college expenses. We believe these students to be 
strong, rugged fellows, ready to work. They are not work¬ 
ing at agriculture because they cannot find something else 
to do, but because they intend to make farming their life 
work. They will expect to be paid what they are actually 
worth. Farmers who permit their names to appear on our 
lists will not be obliged to 'cake men. but will be giTen the 
opportunity to do so: it is assumed, however, that they 
will expect to take them if we can meet their needs. Only 
such farmers will be listed as are approved by the College 
as qualified to take young men who are learning. They 
will help the students to get their education and in return 
should receive good value. The service and responsibility 
will be mutual. These farms will constitute a practical 
Department of the College of Agriculture. To have one’s 
farm on the list will carry some distinction with it 
The young men who will be available for employment 
on such farms fall into four general classes: 
1. Persons who expect to study at the College of Agri¬ 
culture, but who want to gain a practical knowledge of 
farming before -they enter. They are available more or 
less throughout the year. They are usually young men 
from cities who wish to become farmers. 
2. Students who want Summer work chiefly for experi¬ 
ence, but also to earn what they can. Usually they have 
had some farm experience, but not much; but owing to 
their eagerness to learn they will be different from the 
ordinarv “inexperienced hand.” These students can take 
work about June 10, and can continue until about Septem¬ 
ber 15. 
3. Students experienced in farm work who desire places 
for about the same period as above in order to earn money 
to enable them to continue their studies at College. They 
will possess technical knowledge of certain kinds of farming 
and should prove much more efficient than the ordinary 
“experienced hand.” 
4. At the close of the college year there are usually a 
number of students who have finished their studies and 
desire positions on farms as superintendents or managers. 
Your farm has been included in our preliminary list, 
riease state which of these four classes of students, if any, 
you would prefer. Please state also the kind of farming 
you are engaged in. As our list must include many farms 
of each kind, as general, poultry, fruit, dairy, and the 
like, we mav not be able to furnish you help every Summer. 
If you have had student help, we should like a statement 
as to whether it was satisfactory. 
I have felt it my duty, as Director of the State 
College of Agriculture, to put this subject squarely 
before the people of the State in order that they may 
know that the responsibility for a more highly de¬ 
THE RURAL, NEW-YORKER 
veloped country life depends on them as well as on 
the institutions that the people have established (a 
situation that many farmers already realize). These 
institutions have their limitations, which the institu¬ 
tions themselves recognize; but it is impossible for 
them to do their work alone. The farmers must 
recognize their part in the work; I am now suggesting 
an opportunity for volunteers. 
I think that fanners do not sufficiently realize how 
much they liave to contribute, or how important their 
farms are educationally. Every good farm has many 
of the elements of a good school. If the col’ege has 
much to give, so has the farm much to give, and the 
farm is making a very real contribution to society. 
It is of the first importance that as many students as 
possible come in actual contact with good farms and 
active farmers. There must be very' close cooperation 
between farmers’ farms and the educational institu¬ 
tions, if the best results for country life are to be 
developed. 
I would not imply that farmers do not cooperate. 
I have been much pleased with the way in which they 
have responded to college work and with the many 
helpful suggestions that they are making to ns. We 
could not do our work if this were not true. But the 
demands on the college are increasing so rapidly and 
heavily, that I am making an appeal for further help. 
Dean, N. Y., Agricultural College. I,, h. bailey. 
NEW BERRY CULTURE. 
Tying Up the Canes. 
Part III. 
The low-down strawberry carriers are a nuisance 
in the cane berries, but we want no berries picked in 
pails. We make carriers of light half-inch lumber and 
plastering lath, to stand 26 to 28 inches high. Two 
boards six inches wide by two feet long and five lath 
will make one. Nail pieces of lath around one board 
to hold the baskets, then put on the legs, spreading a 
little each way, a short piece across between each of 
the end legs, and the other board nailed on these di¬ 
rectly under and about 10 inches below the top one, 
and it is complete. The picker takes eight baskets, and 
when four are filled they are placed on the lower 
board and the others filled. They are light and con¬ 
venient, and are within easy reach whether standing 
up or down on the knees picking dose to the ground. 
Both hands are free, and the picker can work in any 
position without danger of tipping over their berries, 
as with a carrier suspended from the shoulders. While 
we have not had a whole acre of berries in full crop 
here yet, we figure as carefulty as we could. The 
blackberries produced about 106 bushels per acre, and 
the red raspberries 96 bushels last year. This does 
not include berries used on our table or make any 
allowance for the fact that we fed a large flock of 
birds for weeks. And five or six dozen birds make 
more impression on a small patch than on a large one. 
Neither have we figured on the basis that if 10 hens 
lay nine eggs in one day, 100 hens will lay 32.850 eggs 
in a year. These small patches have had no ady^antage 
in any yvay that we do not expect to give the Jarger 
ones. We shall be ready with a full acre report by 
August 30. We expect to improve these records, par- 
ticularlv the blackberries. We have reason to think 
yve can double that record, but there is time enough 
to tell of that yvhen it is done Our raspberries sold 
at wholesale for $4.50 to $4.80 per bushel, and the 
blackberries for $3.20, except a few bushels at the last 
which brought $3.50. 
The ground we have in berries is only moderate 
in fertility. It was considered poor five years ago, and 
has had but one coat of manure since then. Last year 
yvas the first that we used any phosphate of any con¬ 
sequence. We used about 600 pounds per acre of a 
fertilizer containing one to 1per cent of nitrogen, 
six of potash and eight of phosphoric acid. This 
year yve shall get more potash and leave out the nitro¬ 
gen entirely, as we do not care to buy expensive nitro¬ 
gen to grow a lot more brush than we can use. We 
have a nine-tooth cultivator that opens about four feet 
and will do a good job in those wide rows, going 
twice in a row. There are some 10 and 12-inch 
sweeps for cutting the suckers between rows and they 
leave the soil nearly level. By loosening two bolts 
and a set screw we can lay aside the extra teeth and 
have the regular five-tooth cultivator for other uses. 
In picking we get better work done and have less 
trouble yvhen the boys and girls are kept separate. 
That is one reason why we hire all girls. If we had 
both we yvould separate them while at work. Our 
rows are all numbered, which is quite a convenience. 
We claim for our system that it produces larger crops 
and better berries, that they are more easily picked, 
and that the life of the patch is lengthened very ma¬ 
terially. The only objection we hear is too much 
work. The cutting out of the old canes and most of 
the tying and pruning can be done in Winter and early 
Spring when other work is not pressing. I know we 
are told to remove the old canes as soon as the crop 
is off, and in some cases it might be best, but we have 
our reasons for not doing so. The first is that at this 
time we are rushing, busy 12 to 14 hours every day 
yvithout undertaking an 3 r work that can be put off for 
a while. Then by the end of the picking season we 
have new canes large enough to do very well whether 
they grow any more or not, and they whip around in 
the wind worse and are more likely to be broken with 
the old canes removed. The rows are so shaded after 
the fruit spurs come out that there is little trouble 
with yveeds in the row if hoed out once in the Spring. 
While not prepared to make a definite statement, we 
think we can produce either of these berries as cheaply 
as strawberries. It usually costs a little more to get 
the red ones picked. We think the cane berries offer 
a fine opportunity for a man with limited capital, as 
it requires but a few acres of land and no heavy ex¬ 
pense for equipment There are many markets like 
ours with a plentiful supply of strawberries that do 
not get nearly enough of the cane berries. Our great¬ 
est difficulty in the market has been to divide our 
berries around among our customers and have them 
all think that they were getting a fair share of them. 
Mercer Co., Pa. B. v. Egbert. 
A FLORIDA LAND COMPANY “COMES 
BACK.” 
I want you to save others from the experience 
which I and several others from Tottenville had in 
trying to buy Florida real estate. About one 3 ^ear ago 
a friend showed me an advertisement of the New 
South Farm and Home Co. of Chicago, Ill., taken 
from a magazine. The advertisement told how a man 
could go to Burbank, Florida, take 10 acres of their 
land, pay them five dollars deposit, and in about one 
3 'ear clear the land of all debt and become inde¬ 
pendently rich. It was guaranteed that if for any 
reason whatever the purchaser should become dis¬ 
satisfied, the company would upon request immediately 
return all money paid in, with six per cent interest. 
Mr. John Anderson, myself and several others con¬ 
cluded to invest under those conditions, but I warned 
each one to be sure not to miss any payments, as that 
would be the only yvay the company yvould have any 
chance to refuse to return the money if anything was 
not satisfactory. 
Last October (after making six payments oil the 
land) I yvemt to Florida to find out -what we had there. 
There is no more beautiful count™ anywhere than 
the State of Florida, or a more miserable spot in the 
country than the spot belonging to the New South 
Farm and Home Co. When I reached the Burbank 
Ocala Farms I found that not a single statement made 
by the company in the advertisement was true. I can¬ 
not give them credit for one truthful remark except 
the fact that the land was there and it belonged to 
them. The man who took us to see our land drove a 
team of mules five miles through the yvoods, and on 
that drive yve never saw one dollar’s worth of truck 
growing, except some sugar corn, which was old fields 
planted by the old natives. There was no road; not 
even a good cow path. I inquired where the few 
people yyho yvere fooled there got their vegetables 
from, and yvas told that they had to go to Ocala, which 
is over 20 miles away, to get them; I was disgusted 
and wanted to get away at once. I found that the ex¬ 
periment farm was a myth. The land was nothing 
hut the poorest kind of sand (their advertisement 
called it loam), and I am sure that it would be im¬ 
possible to raise anything except peanuts on it. Mr. 
McNeil, of Burbank, one of the victims, raised one 
basket of beans and sold them for one dollar. He 
spent $7400 for irrigating, labor, etc., and his crop 
yvas one dollar’s worth of beans. Mr. McNeil has the 
best farm on the property, so we can imagine vvhat 
the rest is like. He challenged Mr. Magaw (vice- 
president of the company) to produce one man on the 
whole colony who ever raised and sold more vege¬ 
tables than he did, and agreed to deed his farm to 
Magaw if he produced such a man. When I arrived 
home I demanded all the money bade, with six per 
cent interest. The company started the “tiring out 
game. I got dear old Uncle Sam after them; then 
I got The R. N.-Y. in the game, and don’t think that 
I dropped out. With the three of us at it, it took 
six months to get the money back, and they have not 
sent the interest yet, but I am going to make them 
send it If anyone who reads this article has 
money in this company, and has not been able to get 
it hack I will help them get it without any charges 
whatey'er. I wish to thank The R. N.-Y. for tne part 
you have had in bringing this company .to a place 
where they had to do as they agreed, and in apprecia¬ 
tion of your good work I want you to accept toe in¬ 
closed 50 subscriptons; I am inclosing my check for 
$50 to cover same. Yours for truth every time. 
Tottenville, N. Y. Christian petersen. 
R. N.-Y.—What has become of those wonderful 
“new creations” which Luther Burbank was to give to 
settlers on this land? There yvas a new^ potato, new 
sweet corn and the great “spineless cactus” to be given 
new settlers. Mr. Petersen seems to have missed see¬ 
ing these wonderful gifts of nature and Burbank . 
