1911. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1023 
WALKING OR RIDING PLOWS. 
Flow much more sod ground can a man and team turn 
over with a sulky plow than with the ordinary walking 
plow? I have been told that on ordinarily smooth side- 
hill land a team and man will turn over about an acre a 
day of sod land with a walking plow. This coincides 
with my experience in New York State. I am told by the 
owner of a sulky plow that a man and team can turn over 
three acres of not too stony side-hill land with a sulky 
plow. j. L. L. 
Carmel, N. Y. 
If the walking plow turns the same width of land 
as the sulky plow the latter will not plow more land 
per day than will the walking plow, for it takes as 
long to turn with riding plows as with walking plows. 
Riding plows usually cut wider furrows than walking 
plows, and take more horse power to pull them. One 
man and three horses with a 14-inch walking plow 
will break lj^ to two acres per day in good-sized 
fields, and the same man and four or five horses with 
a riding plow having two 14-inch gangs, will break 
three or four acres per day. The chief advantage 
lies in saving the time of one man and rendering 
the work less laborious for the plowman. There is 
the further advantage that the riding plow does more 
uniform work. If your friend will take a walking 
plow capable of turning a furrow the same width as 
4 
THREE-YEAR APPLE TREE. Fio. 408. 
See First Page. 
is turned by his sulky or riding plow and keep going 
as steadily and as long as when using the riding 
plow he will find that he can plow the same area of 
land with less fatigue to the horses. The plowman 
himself will be “dead tired,” and therein is the secret 
of the popularity of riding plows and cultivators; 
the farmer considers it easier to purchase new horses 
than it is to regain his own health and strength 
when impaired by unnecessarily hard labor. 
Ohio. W. E. DUCKWALL. 
SELLING DIRECT TO CONSUMERS. 
Referring to L. E. G.’s article on page 801 about 
his poor returns from maple syrup [a Vermont man 
netted about 58 cents a gallon on a commission sale. 
Eds.] he, as well as many others at the North 
(and those at the South, for that matter,) who have 
like high-class products indigenous to their particu¬ 
lar locality to sell, should insert a small advertise¬ 
ment in The R. N.-Y. It reaches a territory so vast 
that there certainly could be found sufficient patrons 
whose tastes savor for the best, and who would 
readily take advantage of the offer and willingly pay 
the price plus the expressage, knowing they would 
get the pure stuff. It is likely that a trade could be 
established that would pay as handsomely propor¬ 
tionately as the Jones Country Sausage Farm, which, 
I am told, has long ago lost its identity as a mere 
farm, and is now reckoned as a packing house, but 
they still make the original product of course. Often 
I, for one, would like some maple syrup, but dare not 
purchase locally, as I could get nothing but a watery 
sweetened concoction with a fancy label. It is quite 
a compliment here to remember a friend at Christ¬ 
mas time with an article that cannot always be 
bought ; I imagine that the pecans and persimmons, 
the magnolias and jessamines I occasionally send to 
Northern friends are accepted with the same relish. 
Some pecan growers, for instance, have worked up a 
patronage at the North and West where many have 
never tasted that nut, through a little well-placed ad¬ 
vertisement at the beginning and have retained that 
patronage for years, realizing 75 cents to $1.25 per 
pound for fancy nuts, while others are content to 
FOUR UNDESIRABLE TREES. Fig. 409. 
See First Page. 
sell the same product possibly at home, where it is 
freely offered at 15 cents to 25 cents per pound. It 
is the butter and egg farmer's aim to work up a 
direct patronage in the village. Why not extend this 
plan with a specialty that can safely be transported 
long distances, and enable a few of the many epi- 
curists to enjoy what they want? In preference to 
waiting for the development of the parcels post 
embryo, they will gladly pay the freight. 
Texas. victor labadie. 
R. N.-Y.—We have found freight shipments for 
small articles quite unsatisfactory, while express rates 
are too high. With parcels post Mr. Labadie’s plan 
would work out right. 
NURSERY AGENTS AND TREES. 
I have been interested in what has been printed 
in The R. N.-Y. in regard to buying from agents. 
There are two classes of tree canvassers, the unre¬ 
liable fellows who go through the country taking 
CROOKED PEACH WITH PEAR ROOT. Fig. 410. 
See First Page. 
orders for trees and then buying the cullings of the 
nurseries to fill their orders with, and the men who 
actually represent reliable nurseries. This latter class 
has done a great deal in promoting the planting of 
fruit trees, and the only difficulty is that they must 
have larger prices than the nursery will sell direct for, 
since their travelling expenses and delivery costs must 
be met. One who is familiar with the nursery trade 
and knows just where the best trees of certain kinds 
are grown—for there is a great difference in the 
product of different nurseries' in certain kinds of 
trees, as the adaptation of soil and climate for the 
different trees varies—will always know just where 
to get what he wants and will be posted on prices. 
But the farmers all over the country are completely 
unfamiliar with the growing of nursery stock and 
know nothing about the methods of the various nur¬ 
series or their prices, and hence the traveling agent 
gets big prices from them. 
Some years ago a man with whom I was well 
acquainted was selling fruit trees, and like many of 
the men engaged in the business, knew nothing prac¬ 
tically about the trees or the varieties he was selling 
and simply believed what he was told to say about 
them. He was perfectly honest and anxious to sell, 
and came to me one Fall, knowing that I was about 
to buy some fruit trees, and begged me to give him 
the order. I told him that I knew just where to get 
the few trees I wanted and that I could get them for 
a good deal less money that he could afford to supply 
them. He asked me to give him a list of what I 
wanted and he would price it for me. I told him I 
I would give him the list and would send also to the 
nursery where I intended to buy and have them price 
me a duplicate list, and when that list came I would 
be ready to see his prices. When my list was re¬ 
turned from the nursery the little order was priced at 
$18. My agent friend came in and I asked him for his 
list. He gave it to me, saying that he had put the 
plants as low as he possibly could, and lower than he 
was charging all around me. His prices summed up 
FINE CRAWFORD AND ELBERTA PEACHES. FlO. 411. 
See First Pago. 
$40, and I never saw a man so astonished as he was 
when I showed him the duplicate list from a first-class 
nursery for $18. There is just the point with all 
traveling salesmen for any of the nurseries. They 
may sell good trees, but their prices are entirely too 
high. w. F. MASSEY. 
Maryland. 
The Vermont Experiment Station is doing great 
work with fertilizer analyses. It is doubtful if any 
station in the country gives the people plainer or 
more useful facts about commercial plant food. All 
the brands sold in Vermont are analyzed and the ni¬ 
trogen is divided into five different forms from ni¬ 
trates to “insoluble organic.” Thus a farmer with 
the Vermont bulletin can, if he wishes, learn just 
about what the fertilizer is made of and what he may 
expect from it. The average analysis, simply stating 
the amount of “nitrogen,” is not much help, because 
all sorts of unavailable stuff may have been used in 
the fertilizer. The Vermont Station also figures what 
plant food costs in various mixtures. The average 
retail price of nitrogen in chemicals was 20 cents a 
pound. In “high grade” mixtures this cost averaged 
28.3 cents, while in “low grade” it was 38.6 cents. 
Figured in another way it cost 93 cents to put a 
dollar’s worth of plant food in a farmer’s hands 
when he bought “low-grade” goods, or 42 cents in 
“high-grade.” That is a striking way of showing 
the folly of buying low-grade goods. The fertilizer 
business has now come to be an immense affair. 
The various States recognize this by trying to safe¬ 
guard the trade and expose humbugs. The State can¬ 
not do it all, for the farmer must use common sense 
in connection with the facts which the stations offer. 
