“721 
1911. 
RURAlb IS8W»YORKEH 
"THERE ARE MANY WORSE OFF THAN 
YOU.’’ 
“Don’t tell us your troubles, we have 
plenty of our own.” This unpleasant 
rebuke is sometimes seen framed, motto¬ 
like, in the office of merchants and busi¬ 
ness men. It seems to be human nature 
to think our troubles are greater than 
others around us, yet when we look 
truly at those who are afflicted, our own 
calamities seem insignificant. 
Out in western Kansas, in Rawlins 
County, about 25 miles south of the 
Nebraska line, and about twice that 
much east of Colorado, live a man and 
Alfalfa with Corn. 
I have 16 acres in corn. Raised corn 
last year on same ground. Can I sow Al¬ 
falfa seed before last working of corn with 
spring-tooth harrow and hope to get a good 
stand of Alfalfa for next Summer? Land 
is sandy loam. Wild grass grows there 
luxuriantly unless corn is constantly 
worked. ‘Location is Chester County, I’a. 
G. 
We doubt it. Some cases are reported 
where Alfalfa seeded like clover in this 
way has given a fair stand, but the plan 
cannot be generally recommended. We 
would run the Alfalfa alone or with a 
grain crop. 
wife, now past middle life, reared in the 
East with industry and refinement. They 
are now undergoing hardships such as 
few farmers were ever called upon to 
suffer, not as farmers alone, but the 
fate of ill health and condition of limb 
make their case pathetic. It seems a 
pity our Government is not socialized so 
as to care for those down and out, with¬ 
out becoming county charges, or living 
the miserable lives of these honorable 
unfortunates. As a young woman in the 
early eighties, she homesteaded this 160 
acres. Later married and lived in va¬ 
rious other places and States, hunting 
the golden garden spot, and when health 
and money were gone, returned here, 
and here they carry on farming opera¬ 
tions such as I shall quote from a letter 
of recent date: 
April 23, 1911. Your letter came two 
days ago, and bow happy and surprised I 
was. I had long ago ceased to look for 
a letter. It found me about as usual, 
pains in my limbs, and I cannot walk as 
well as one year ago. Have to use both 
crutches; cannot stand alone without a 
support of some kind. Of course I do all 
my cooking, washing and housework sit¬ 
ting down. You may easily imagine what 
my house looks like, as it is next to im¬ 
possible for me to sweep. Have only tried 
it two or three times since New Years. But 
we never have to go hungry. The place is 
our own and we are happy with each other, 
and what can’t be helped we have learned 
philosophically to endure. Lute (the hus¬ 
band) cannot dress without help yet, though 
his hand is well he has not regained the 
full use of his arm. (From blood poisoning 
in early Winter). 
We finished drilling 20 acres of Spring 
wheat one week ago yesterday. Only 
worked in the field three or four hours each 
day, in the afternoon, for eight days. We 
disked it first, then drilled it in, this is 
for our chicken feed. We had three horses 
to hitch up each day but only unharnessed 
one, as the harness on the other two was 
too heavy for us, if we pulled them off 
we could' not put them on again. One of 
our kind neighbors harnessed them for us 
the Sunday before we began to disk, and 
we didn’t work every day, just couldn’t 
stand it. I had to do most of the hitching 
up, and unhitching, all of the oiling and 
had to help Lute off and on the disk and 
drill. We intend to put in 40 acres of corn 
and cane, not much if we were less crippled, 
but it looms up quite a task as it is. But 
we must do it if possible—so as to have feed 
for the stock next Winter. We keep but 
three horses and only have 16 head of 
cattle now, but they must be fed. 
I take a comfortable and pillow to the 
field and lie down and sleep till Lute needs 
me to do the oiling, or for something else. 
Yesterday we were only partly hitched up 
when company came, but finished hitching 
up and got Lute started to disking. We 
were close to the house so I went back to 
oil when he called me. My company was 
two ladies and three girls, all nice neigh¬ 
bors. Glad of course to have them call, 
but I missed my sun bath out in the open 
air on the comfortable. 
We have had two rains this season, about 
1% inch all told. The Winter wheat is 
coming up nicely. We had a little snow in 
February that swelled and sprouted some 
of it. We get about four dozen eggs per 
day. They are 12 cents per dozen. Butter 
15 cents per pound, but we buy ours, as 
we have not milked for nearly four years. 
We seldom go to town as I have to help 
Lute into the wagon, then he has to pull 
me in, as we cannot get in or out alone. 
Last Fall I took a calf to Colby, about 20 
miles, alone, and had to stay in the wagon 
till I got home again. Later I took an¬ 
other and was so stiff and tired I could 
hardly sit up when I did get home. An¬ 
other time Lute and I both went, and twice 
he went alone, and once we sent a calf by 
a neighbor. They averaged $22.50 per 
head after taking a “dock” of 100 pounds 
on top of a 20-mile ride. We sold to a 
butcher for five cents a pound. We haven’t 
planted any garden or potatoes. We 
couldn’t half care for them if we did. 
Haven’t even a plant or flower, and things 
look so brown and bare. 
I have written so much about ourselves 
it looks a little stale, but you asked to 
know all about our doings, and since per¬ 
haps we will never visit you again I have 
just told everything. I think you knew 
Lute walks with two canes, and if he trips 
down his legs cross and he has to lie. 
there until I come and help him to get up. 
Our well is about 40 rods from the house, 
we haul it mostly but sometimes I carry it 
in a jug with the strap around my neck 
as I have to use both crutches, then some¬ 
times my hip pops in and out of place. 
Please write us again for we truly enjoy 
hearing from you. 
A relative on a visit there some 
months ago traveled the 18 or 20 miles 
with a hired rig both ways and met no 
one either going or coming. He passed 
only four or five houses on the road. 
The land is very fertile, but mostly lacks 
in moisture, but some very good crops 
are raised when the proper cultivation 
is given. J. E. H. 
Kansas. 
The Use of Swamp Muck. 
I have a swamp of about five acres that 
has muck from one to 10 feet deep. I have 
drawn it on my land and plowed it under, 
but with no benefit. Are there any in¬ 
gredients I can mix with it, and how much 
of each kind to 100 pounds of muck, after 
it is dried, to make a good furtilizer? 
New York. c. a. c. 
Raw muck is usually so sour that it will 
not give results when applied fresh from 
the swamp. It often contains as much ni¬ 
trogen as stable manure, but in such forms 
that plants cannot use it until well ferment¬ 
ed. The way to handle muck is to get it 
out of the swamp six months or a year be¬ 
fore it is to be used, and compost it with 
lime. The lime is well mixed with the muck 
in a pile and left to ferment. The muck 
contains but little phosphoric acid and 
practically no potash. A good way to 
handle it is to mix with lime and let it 
stand six months. Then fork it over and as 
you do so mix in about 50 pounds of acid 
phosphate and 30 of muriate of potash to 
each ton. You will then have a mixture 
fully equal to stable manure. 
The Ant Pest. 
Will you tell me how we can get rid of 
black ants in the house. We have tried 
borax and sulphur; both fail. Can you ad¬ 
vise us to use anything else? l. f. 
New Jersey. 
It is a hard matter to clean out the 
ants unless you can reach their holes or 
nest. If you can, a dose of bisulphide of 
carbon confined in the hole will get them. 
One way to catch them in the house is to 
soak sponges in sweetened water and leave 
them in the pantry or kitchen. Keep all 
other food protected. The ants will swarm 
in the sponges and may be killed by throw¬ 
ing into boiling water. 
COST OF HARVESTING HAY. 
What is it worth, provided the weather 
is good, to cut and cure and draw into 
the barn 90 acres of hay? This is on a 
level farm, with the barn not over half a 
mile away from one-half of the crop and 
one-quarter of a mile for the remainder. 
The hay goes one ton to the acre. The 
man who docs the job is to furnish all 
teams and tools and to board his own men. 
READER. 
The rule in western New York is to cut 
grass and put in barn for half the crop. I 
should say it would be worth from $3.50 
to $4 per ton under conditions stated if to 
be done for money. j. s. woodward. 
Niagara Co., N. Y. 
Last year on one of my farms we kept a 
record of what it cost us to harvest our 
hay crop where the hay was near the 
barns. We put it into the barns at an ex¬ 
pense of not over $1 per ton. We also 
harvested one 20-acre field of hay, Timothy 
aud Red-top, that went over one ton per 
acre, and put it into a stack in the cen¬ 
ter of the field at not over $1 per ton. 
However, if your hay has to be loaded 
on to wagons and hauled a distance and 
unloaded, the price would vary from $1.50 
to $2 per ton, depending entirely on how 
good a crop the man had who was doing 
the work. I am talking in this about 
the actual cost, and of course the' man 
would have to have a profit, and if he had 
$3 per ton, he ought to make good money 
above his expenses. Very frequently, how¬ 
ever, throughout western New York, hay 
is cut on shares, the man doing the cut¬ 
ting getting one-third to one-half of the 
hay, and of course on any such terms as 
that, he gets the best of the deal. 
Monroe Co., N. Y. edwaud f. dibble. 
I do not know how much it costs to 
harvest hay. If a man had good machin¬ 
ery, six-foot cut mowers or wider, a good 
side-delivery rake, hay loader, teams, 
wagons and good men, and the weather 
guaranteed good, it is a comparatively 
easy job to figure somewhere near the cost. 
A good team should cut 12 acres or more 
per day, a team on side-delivery rake 20 to 
25 acres per day; two men to load, one to 
drive the team, one or two men in the 
mow, a boy to drive horse fork and a man 
to run the fork should put in about 20 
tons per day. So much depends on the 
men and outfit it is impossible to tell 
some one else what it would cost. It 
would cost me with the outfit I have 
around $2.50 to $3 per ton if it cut one 
ton per acre, if two tons per acre cost less, 
but I would not advise this man to take 
the job for less than $5 to $6 per ton. 
Orleans Co., N. Y. clark allis. 
Buckwheat as Green Manure. —On page 
666 M. F., Bethel, Conn., asks about buck¬ 
wheat for green manure. From my ex¬ 
perience last year I advise him strongly to 
sow it for that purpose. I had a piece of 
old sod plowed last year after the hay was 
taken off, and after a lot of harrowing it 
was sown thickly to buckwheat; on Sep¬ 
tember 17 and 19 it was disked and chopped 
all to pieces; on the 20th it was smoothed 
with a square harrow, sown to Timothy 
and then bushed. I used one-half ton to 
an acre of bone and potash mixture, 3-17- 
13.50, and to-day, June 10, it is the best 
grass I have. It is high, thick, good color 
and very free from weeds. The buckwheat 
made a lot of humus, killed the weeds and 
mellowed up the ground, and I shall use it 
in the same way on a larger scale this 
Fall. w. w. c. 
Woodville, Conn. 
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