1911. 
AN ORDER FOR NURSERY STOCK. 
We give the particulars regarding the .following 
case in order that the facts about cancellation of 
nursery orders may be brought out. The following 
letter came to us about May 1: 
Last Fall I ordered some fruit trees from an agent 
representing the Rice Brothers’ nursery of Geneva, N. 
Y., order amounting to $15. In March I sold my place 
at -, Mich., where I lived, and moved to-, 
Mich., and went to work in a factory and rented a 
house. At the time of my selling I notified the nursery 
company that I sold, and would not be able to use the 
trees, as I was renting a house and did not own any 
land, and asked them to cancel the order. I heard 
nothing from them, but knew they got the letter, as it 
was in an envelope with my return card on. A short 
time ago I got word from the agent of the railroad at 
-that there was a box of trees there for me. 
I could not use them, so wrote the nurserymen asking 
why they shipped them after I told them I had sold out. 
They wrote back to send the money, as they received 
such letters every Spring but never paid any attention 
to them. Must I pay for the trees, or shall I stand 
them a suit? Can they compel me to pay the bill under 
such circumstances? TEN EYCK * 
Here was a case where a man had sold his land 
and had no possible use for the trees. Under such 
circumstances we held that he was justified in can¬ 
celling the order provided he notified the nurseryman 
in time. We think he had good reason for doing so. 
We wrote Rice Bros, to this effect, stating that as 
Mr. Ten Eyck had sold his place and had no ground 
for the trees it was neither fair nor good business 
policy to ignore his notice of cancellation and attempt 
to scare him into payment. In reply we received a 
curt letter stating that Rice Bros, paid no attention to 
such cancellations. They said they had 100 letters 
stating that the buyer could not handle the trees, 
but they never noticed 
them, sent the stock and P 
the people “paid for it.” 
If we understand these 
gentlemen their policy is 
to pick up orders 
through agents. Then, 
no matter what the; 
circumstances of the 
farmer or gardener may 
be, they pay no attention 
to his letters, but ship 
him the goods expecting 
to bluff or scare him into 
paying for them. That 
seems to be the general 
policy of nursery houses 
who make a feature of 
these small orders 
through agents. They 
understand human na¬ 
ture, and realize that 
nine out of 10 people 
can be bluffed into pay¬ 
ing for stuff they do not 
need through threat of a 
lawsuit or some sort o' - 
forcible collection. There 
are many cases where the buyer ’is fully justified in 
cancelling the order. Mr. Ten Eyck had good and 
sufficient reason for doing so, and it would seem as 
if an honorable nursery firm which cared anything 
for its reputation would accept his cancellation under 
such circumstances. We’ know dozens of honorable 
nurserymen who would do so. But Rice Bros, seem 
to have a different policy. They “pay no attention” 
to a man’s wants or needs, but when they once get 
hold of him their plan seems to be to force him to the 
limit. This is one of the great objections to buying- 
nursery stock from irresponsible tree agents. 
In the case now under consideration it finally ap¬ 
peared that Mr. Ten Eyck took the bluff, as many 
people do, and thought he was obliged to take the 
trees. The stock was in poor condition. Mr. Ten 
Eyck had no use for them, but it seems that he tried 
to get what he could by selling them even at half price. 
No one would take them, so they were finally turned 
over to the man who had bought the home place. We 
find that this is part of the game figured out by the 
nurserymen—to get the customer on one pretext or 
another to accept the stock. Then they have him. 
When we found that Mr. Ten Eyck had virtually 
accepted the trees we advised him to pay the bill, 
and he did so. He should not have touched them 
under the circumstances. Our advice is to avoid 
making contracts with tree agents unless you know 
them personally to be reliable and responsible. Do 
not hunt for small and petty reasons for refusing such 
stock—do not sign for it in the first place. If you 
find yourself in the position of Mr. Ten Eyck, with 
no place to put the trees, cancel the order at once, 
register the letter and keep the receipt for it. Also 
notify the agent in the same manner. Then do not 
touch the trees; refuse to be bluffed into taking them. 
THE RUKA NEW-YORKER 
A REVIEW OF “CLARK GRASS CULTURE.” 
Last week we spoke of the Clark system of grass 
culture. For the past dozen years demands have 
come annually for a description of this system. 
Briefly stated, this plan was followed by the late 
Geo. M. Clark, of Connecticut. He started with old 
meadows or old pastures which had been overrun by 
weeds, berry bushes and the growth which usually 
comes into neglected fields. His plan was to develop 
permanent meadows which would give heavy yields 
of grass and continue to do so for many years. He 
tried the original plan of seeding small quantities of 
grass seed with grain, like wheat or rye in the Fall 
or oats in the Spring. Such meadows were not per¬ 
manent. They might give a fair yield of grass for a 
few years, but then they ran out. Mr. Clark con¬ 
cluded that the so-called nurse crop of grain was a 
detriment rather than a help to the grass by thinning 
it out and preventing a full stand. He reasoned that 
a meadow ought to be as thickly seeded as a lawn, 
and then with heavy feeding there was no reason why 
a meadow should not continue to produce good grass 
as long as a good lawn does. He therefore dis¬ 
carded the nurse crop of grain, and after exact ex¬ 
periment decided upon a plan which may be analyzed 
as follows: A thorough preparation of the soil to 
kill out all weed growth and give a perfect seed bed, 
perfect grade, the land made level with a gentle slope, 
so that no water can stand in puddles or depressions; 
heavy seeding of grass, four or five times as much 
seed as the average farmer used, and this seed evenly 
distributed all over the field; heavy feeding with 
TEXAS WHITE-FACED YEARLINGS FATTENED IN OHIO. Fig. 294. (See page 792.) 
783 
ing harrow and scraper. With this the soil was made 
into the condition of an ash heap, and thoroughly 
graded, until it presented about the surface required 
for a lawn. Clark reasoned that the best time for 
sowing grass seed was in late August or early Sep¬ 
tember. Instead of using four or six quarts of 
Timothy to the acre, as many farmers do, he used 24 
quarts each of Timothy and Red-top seed. This 
seed was put on by hand. The seeders worked both 
ways, so as to get a perfect stand. The idea in 
using the Red-top was that this slender grass will 
grow in between the Timothy, help fill out the space 
and add at least one ton to the acre of good hay, 
which could not be obtained with Timothy alone. 
The advice was to seed if possible just before a 
gentle rain, and the seed was covered with a weeder 
or a brush drag. At the time of seeding or just be¬ 
fore, 800 pounds per acre of a high-grade fertilizer 
was used. Clark used a special mixture made by the 
Rogers & Hubbard Company. Probably a fair dupli¬ 
cate of this fertilizer could be obtained by using 100 
pounds nitrate of soda, 100 pounds of potash and 
300 pounds of a very fine ground bone. This fertilizer 
was applied with the grain and harrowed in, and after 
this preparation the grass was left alone. As a rule 
the first crop after this heavy seeding gave a short 
and very thick fine growth of grass and those who 
went to the great expense of labor and money in an 
effort to imitate Clark were usually disappointed in 
the first crop. It improved, however, rapidly with 
each year. Clark’s advice was to use 800 pounds of 
this fertilizer annually, part in the Fall and part in the 
Spring. We went to 
Clark’s hay field several 
times, saw the grass 
growing, saw it cut and 
put into the barn, and 
there is no question 
whatever about the fact 
that he got year after 
year from five to seven 
tons of hay per acre. A 
thorough preparation of 
the soil made the crop 
like a lawn. The heavy 
fertilizing kept the grass 
growing vigorously and 
made the meadow per¬ 
manent. In walking over 
the field it was difficult 
to find a place as large 
as the palm of the hand 
that did not have grass 
growing upon it. As 
everyone knows, a mea¬ 
dow seeded with gram 
in the ordinary way has 
many of these bare spots. 
It is practically impos¬ 
sible to reseed them 
high grade chemical fertilizers every year and the ap- without plowing and refitting the entire field. We 
plication of lime at intervals to prevent souring of give Clark’s method in some detail. The average 
the ground. Mr. Clark usually started operations farmer with only one team, and that one driven to 
with some old sod, tough and full of weeds. His the limit during late Summer, cannot hope to dupli- 
plan was about as follows: Plow the old sod early cate his methods on a large scale. In fact few farm- 
in the Spring, fit the ground thoroughly and seed to ers can hope to do so. The principles, however, un¬ 
oats with a good dressing of chemicals. Cut the oats derlying his practice are sound, and their lesson is 
for hay before they have a chance to harden into to give as thorough culture as is possible to grass 
grain. Plowing in the Spring and sowing the oats fields, to fit the soil as well as possible and do our 
help to subdue the sod at a greater profit than when best to grade it, to use increased quantities of seed 
the soil had been merely plowed and tilled through and use an abundance of fertilizer or manure. The 
the Summer. As soon as the oats were off the stubble question of seeding with grain or seeding alone is 
was thoroughly worked up. Clark opposed the use still an open one. Personally we get better results 
of a turning plow for this purpose. He claimed that by seeding alone, but reports from many parts of 
the plow turned the furrow over, and with it rub- the country indicate that a nurse crop is more 
bish, weed seed and weed roots. It would only be a 
question of time with such plowing before this foul 
stuff would grow and cover the ground again. He 
therefore followed the reverse of this plowing, using 
a Cutaway disk, now familiar to most of our readers. 
profitable. That will have to be left to the judgment, 
of the individual. 
Both Australasia and Great Britain have what are 
called “minimum wage boards” to deal with “subnor- 
This tool carries steel disks shaped somewhat like a industries. ’ A subnormal industry is one which 
dinner plate with the edges cut out so as to make regularly and permanently produces wholesale pover- 
saw-like teeth. When heavily weighted down and 
hauled over the sod these teeth chop and turn the 
soil up; instead of turning it directly over the Cuta¬ 
way chops and tosses it to the surface. The weeds 
and plants in the old sod are thus turned up and 
exposed to the air. 
Clark started this work about the middle of July. 
His plan was to work the soil first one way and then 
another, and then diagonally again and again, tossing 
up the soil and exposing it to the air. The object 
of this was to kill out the old sod thoroughly. He 
usually worked the soil this way 16 or 20 times, de¬ 
pending- on the weather. In the latter part of 
August he began with other tools, such as a smooth- a job. 
ty by the poor wages it pays. The National Con¬ 
sumers’ League is now working for the establishment 
of minimum wage boards in this country, enumer¬ 
ating, among “subnormal industries” which call for 
inquiry, retail stores, the needle trades and the cotton 
mill industry. The cotton trade is said to fall below 
all others in chronic poverty and its resultant miseries. 
Let's make sure of the best we raise for our pwn table 
anyway. Do not live ou culls and give the middlemen 65 
cents on the dollar for the best. 
You remember that on page 738 we had a note about 
firing a hired man and another from a man out of a job. 
Well, that hired man got his in shprt order and nearly a 
dozen farmers have come after the couple who are out of 
