782 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
well and paying 2^4 cents per barrel for it. It was 
about three months before I got one to work, and 
about the first of May he got the well finished and it 
flowed from five to eight gallons per minute. This 
amount of water will not irrigate to do any good, 
especially here where the water in most places goes 
down for want of compact subsoil to hold it near the 
surface. Then the ordering of a gasoline engine 
was the next thing to do, and I waited two months 
before I could get it. 
CLEARING THE LAND.—Soon after buying the 
place I had the grubbing contracted to a Mexican at 
$10 per acre for cutting the timber, grubbing, and 
burning the brush. I paid him 50 cents per cord for 
the wood and two cents for each post saved. The 
pear, of which there was large quantities, was piled 
on the brush, and when the piles of brush were 
burned the pear was singed and roasted and about 
20 head of cattle ate all they could of it, as soon as 
it got cool. The pear that the cattle did not eat I 
hauled and piled, and when it died and was sufficiently 
dry we burned it. As I wanted the land for truck 
farming, I had it raked by hand and the trash 
burned. I was told that beans paid well and grew 
with but little rain. I plowed and pulverized the land 
thoroughly and planted about five acres in beans, that 
lay in the ground until they sprouted, but did not 
have moisture enough to bring them up. After the 
first planting had died in the ground there came a 
light rain, and I planted again, and they came up to 
a fine stand. I cultivated them nicely and they grew 
and bloomed and kept on blooming, but would not set 
any beans. Then people told me that I planted too 
late and that beans and most everything in the veget¬ 
able and grain line would not produce seed here in . 
Summer. This was agricultural failure No. 1. 
A VICTIM. 
LET ’EM ALONE! GALLED TREES. 
I note what different ones say in regard to crown 
gall. I have had about 10 years experience studying 
and fighting it. I furnished the notes to the botanist 
of the Arizona Experiment Station at Tucson, Ari¬ 
zona, who issued a bulletin' covering this subject. 
While inspector in the Salt River Valley I condemned 
all stock showing in the least signs of the gall. My 
advice is as follows: Have nothing to do with stock 
that you even suspicion has gall, nor accept a tree 
that shows carpenter work on the roots. Just as well 
buy a cholera hog. There is trouble enough without 
buying it. Neither would I deal with a nurseryman 
who sees nothing bad in the gall. He either does not 
know anything about the disease, or misrepresents. 
The peach root shows the least resistance to gall, fol¬ 
lowed by almond, apricot, fig, apple and pear. It is a 
contagious disease, the mycelium is carried by water 
where irrigation is in vogue, and is spread by cul¬ 
tivation, and where soil is once inoculated it is al¬ 
most impossible to grow trees. This is especially true 
of stone fruit. Trees badly affected, under favorable 
soil conditions, will make growth, provided there is 
plenty of moisture. To see the devastation caused by 
this disease, in the deciduous orchards of certain 
western sections, would cause anyone to hesitate be¬ 
fore buying a crown-gall tree; even the “no harm” 
man would try to hedge. I look upon this disease as 
it affects plant life as the white plague affects the 
human life. There is much I might write concerning 
this disease, theories advanced, and the best ways to 
control it, etc. I’ll conclude by again stating, *Let ’em 
alone.” j. e. betti,er. 
Florida. 
THE VALUE OF HEN MANURE. 
It was with great interest I read the article on page 
734, entitled “Facts About Hen Manure.” Your de¬ 
ductions do not agree with mine in the amount per 
hen. You figure 1 1-3 ounces per hen per day, while 
I find 36^4 pounds per year, or 1 3-5 ounces per day 
per hen. That amount is obtained seven days per 
week from White Wyandottes, but Leghorns will not 
go quite so high. I count that I gather two-thirds of 
the droppings from the droppings boards, as the hens 
sit on the roost some in the day time when yarded 
like ours. You admit the manure worth 65 cents per 
100 (according to experiment station figures), and I 
claimed it worth $1 per 100, but you say nothing 
about humus. Now, will you say that substance is not 
present? I understand commercial fertilizer is devoid 
of it. There is another benefit it has over the commer¬ 
cial fertilizer. It will leave your land looser, more fri¬ 
able, more workable, and you do not consider that at 
all. If you have heavy land that is a big item. While I 
admit my inability to discuss this subject scientifically, 
I can judge some from experience, which teaches some, 
to some persons. I planted three rows of potatoes 
with stable manure (all horse manure), hen manure, 
and commercial fertilizer. While the one with fer¬ 
tilizer started the best and quickest, the one with hen 
manure soon caught up and passed it, and at end of 
growing season was at least one-third larger in vines, 
or tops, and fully one-third greater yield, and the 
quality was double, as I used them for seed, and the 
others were not fit for such use. Of course, critics 
may claim I used more droppings, but I worked the 
three rows without bias in favor of either, and in 
each row I put the amount my judgment deemed right. 
Of course that judgment might have been entirely 
wrong, but it was all I had, and the same one worked 
on all three rows. Therefore, it was the same as the 
rule you learned as a boy. Multiplying both numer¬ 
ator and denominator by the same number does not 
alter the value of the fraction. However far apart 
our deductions are, your figures do not change my 
mind in the least, as you leave out two benefits, that 
cannot possibly be given fertilizer, as it does not 
possess them, I will admit droppings should not be 
used everywhere, but can be used heavily on nearly 
any farm crop. I will also admit that there is fully 
as much difference in the value of hen droppings as 
there is in commercial fertilizer, as it must be much 
better when fed high in great variety of feed, including 
bone. I am not trying to belittle commercial fertilizer. 
I use some beside the hen manure, but with fertilizer 
SPltAY OF ST. REGIS RASPBERRY. Fig. 293. 
at $40 per ton and hen manure at $20 a ton, I believe 
I will gain $10 on purchase of the fertilizer. At present 
time I am gathering 70 pounds per day of it, and am 
simply building this farm up with it. 
New Jersey. w. j. dougan. 
R. N.-Y.—Hen manure contains about as much or¬ 
ganic matter as horse manure when fresh. We must 
remember that hen manure is more likely to waste and 
lose its nitrogen than the refuse from any other farm 
animals. Unless it is properly handled it will not 
prove so valuable. When kept right it is no doubt 
equal to most $20 fertilizers. 
A PHILOSOPHER ON PLAIN LIVING. 
The letter of E. P. F. on page 720 deserves to be 
well and widely read. It emphasizes Socrates’ wise re¬ 
mark of “How many things there are that I don’t 
want.” Though the writer is a little under my mark 
in cost of living, the difference is slight and may be 
accounted for in difference of conditions. Like 
him we have pancakes for breakfast every morning of 
the year, the composition varying from whole wheat to 
oatmeal, buckwheat, etc. We eat but sparingly of 
meat, but use fruits, preserves, jelly, and other light 
delicacies raised by ourselves. Our dinner consists of 
either stew, soup, hash, or some other preparation of 
meat with abundance of vegetables and dessert; for 
late tea, an omelet, pudding, or some easily digested 
farinaceous food. We plead guilty to the charge of 
drinking tea, coffee, cocoa, although there may be a 
reason for refraining, but in this as in other matters, 
we do not indulge to excess. Moderation, but neither 
parsimony nor extravagance, is our gospel. No hun¬ 
gry person is ever refused food, and we have fed at 
least four of our neighbor’s cats for years We dress 
simply but comfortably. Was it not Beau Brummel 
who said that a gentleman might be known by the 
inconspicuousness of his dress? In fairness, I should 
say that we have no rent to pay, and there are only 
two in family, which I take to be rather a disadvan¬ 
tage, as it is so hard to provide variety for so limited 
a household. We keep no servant and hire but little 
labor. Our little home (13 rooms, I regret to say) is 
only five acres in extent. Was it not Cato who said, 
Praise large farms, but cultivate small ones.” I do 
all the work on my little farm (though I was born near 
the quaternary period of the nineteenth century) and 
my housewife sedulously and diligently attends to the 
domestic department. We have no distinct and sep¬ 
arate spheres of labor. I have* no objection to wipe 
the dishes, and she is always cheerfully willing to as¬ 
sist me if necessary. In early life I was in business in 
Europe and America, but never faltered in my deter¬ 
mination to be independent, and such I am in religion, 
in politics and in sociology. Money is not my ideal, 
vulgar ostentation I despise, and although I do not, 
with Sydney Smith, urge the cultivation of learning on 
a mess of oatmeal, I have never forgotten the sound 
old English moral that “When lands and money all are 
spent, then learning is most excellent” I have no de¬ 
sire to convert others to my simple life, for I know 
that the masses would look upon it with contempt and 
prefer the dirt, the noise, and even the vice and pov¬ 
erty of the city. w. wiiaiams. 
Rhode Island. 
PREPARING SOD FOR WHEAT. 
I have a three-acre lot which I want to sow to wheat 
this Fall. It has a heavy Blue grass sod, is stiff red clay 
soil and well drained. Which would be the best way to 
work it to get the largest yield? What kind of phosphate 
should I sow and how much ? Would it be a good plan 
to lime it after plowing? u. c. d. 
Martinsburg, W. Va. 
Land now in sod to be sown to wheat this Fall 
should be broken at once in order to get it well 
settled by seeding time. Then keep the Cutaway 
harrow running, and get the surface soil into as fine 
a condition as possible. The more the fallow is 
tramped and harrowed the better. Summer fallowing 
is a good preparation for wheat, but an expensive 
one. If I had had that field and intended to put it 
in wheat this Fall I would have broken it well in the 
early Spring and planted it to corn. Then by culti¬ 
vating the corn shallow and level I would have had 
the best preparation for the wheat, and by cutting 
off the corn and shocking to cure I would have the 
land pretty well cleared for the wheat. Then the soil 
being well settled from the deep Spring plowing, I 
would not replow it, but would use the disk harrow 
to make the surface fine. Summer fallowing of a sod 
has been largely abandoned because of the expense, 
and it is far befter to have a hoed crop as a prepara¬ 
tion. Another method that you could have practiced 
earlier would have been to have sown cow peas on 
the land after a thorough plowing in June, using a 
good application of acid phosphate and potash on 
the peas. Then you could have cut a good crop 
of peavine hay, better than clover hay, and could 
have prepared the stubble with the disk for wheat. 
But at this date the only thing left is to plow the 
land as soon as practicable and then get it into the 
best possible fineness and compactness. Then in seed¬ 
ing I would apply simply 125 pounds of acid phos¬ 
phate an acre, as land in your section seldom needs 
potash. With a heavy sod turned under, a coat of 
lime, well harrowed in in the preparation of the soil, 
will certainly do no harm, and may do good. In the 
Spring, if the growth does not seem satisfactory, you 
can apply 75 pounds an acre of nitrate of soda as 
the wheat starts into growth. I have found this to 
act very well where the straw seems to be promising 
to be too short. But if the land is strong, and prom¬ 
ises to make straw enough, the nitrate may make it 
too heavy and cause lodging. w. f. massey. 
The agricultural colleges will be obliged to take up 
the economic or political side of farming. President 
Gibbs, of New Hampshire, shows that while the 
American farmer is ahead of the European in science 
and art of production, he is far behind in economic 
buying and selling. The American farmers must buy 
from great corporations with the price “fixed” not by 
himself but by the seller. When he sells the other 
man also fixes the price, which is the lowest possible. 
There are two kinds of dollars—the “honest dollar” 
and the 35-cent dollar. The farmer gets the latter— 
and will continue to take it until his friends cease to 
be afraid of the other kind. 
