486 
THE RURA.IS REW-YORRER 
At 18 I Gomm-enced teaching a district school, which 
occupation I followed—except for one year when I 
kept house for an uncle in Florida—until my marriage, 
six years later. We have been married nearly 21 
years, and have two children living, a daughter 12 
years old, and a son nearly 10. Life has brought to 
us, as to all, pleasures and pains, griefs, and gains 
and losses. But I love farm life because I have found 
it less narrow and petty than that of the average 
dweller in town and city; because we have room and 
time and liberty to think and be individuals. 
Papers and magazines bring us all the news of the 
world, and our Winter evenings bring time to read 
and discuss them, or to play games; and hickorynuts, 
popcorn, apples and homemade candy are just as at¬ 
tractive to healthy palates as they ever were. Mr. 
Jc^ey says something like this: “It is better to read 
a than to want to go to the circus and not be 
able to, but it is better to go to the circus than to read 
any book that ever was written.” And so we go to 
the circus or a minstrel show, or a play, when they 
come to town, if they promise to be worth while, but 
we do not go to these things every night, nor every 
week even, and I believe enjoy them all the more be¬ 
cause attended in moderati n. 
We have always an abundance of fresh vegetables, 
eggs, milk, butter, fruit and home-cured meats, bacon, 
sausage, salt pork, corned beef and dried beef, and a 
fowl or two any time we get “chicken” hungry. 
These things represent labor in acquiring, preparing 
and keeping, them, but my acquaintances in towns 
mostly work at high pressure, and have less to show 
. for it. 'And the business itself is so interesting in the 
developing life in all its forms, from the growing 
garden to the frisking calf and colt. Every year I 
say I haye too much to do to take care of little chick¬ 
ens, but when the days grow warm and the biddies 
begin clucking—well, little chickens are so cunning, 
and I seem to want them as badly as the hens do, and 
we always manage to raise a few. “It is not aisy. to 
be working har-rd,” but we work no harder for our 
living than any other class of labor, and perhaps have 
as large a share of the dollars we earn, with better 
physical, mental, moral and spiritual surroundings. 
There, is always the pleasant drive to church, or to 
town, or just for a ride, with our own team, when 
we choose to take the time. We shall not “lose our 
job” by taking a day off, for “the boss” is quite apt 
to go too. We are neighbors and friends (or foes 
possibly, but interested) throughout our whole town¬ 
ship, and even beyond our borders, and always ready 
in any emergency or disaster to help with hand or 
team or pocket-book. Our State has numerous or¬ 
ganizations, the State Grange, the State Board of 
Agriculture, the Dairymen’s Association, Poultry 
Association, Pomological Association, etc., etc., attend¬ 
ance at whose annual meetings brings acquaintance 
with our ablest workers, and helps to keep us proud 
of our occupation. And the frequent institute meet¬ 
ings arranged by these organizations, with local church 
and Grange interests, give us more social opportuni¬ 
ties than we are really able to use. And last, but not 
least—though very difficult to put into words—is that 
intangible asset dear to every individual, of being a 
respected member of a community of equals; 
“Where whoso wisely wills and acts may dwell 
As king and lawgiver, in broadcast state. 
With beauty, art, taste, culture, books, to make 
His hour of leisure richer than a life 
Of fourscore to the barons of old time.” 
Litchfield Co., Conn. mrs. f. l. ives. 
THE PROPAGATION OF OUR NATIVE 
PERSIMMON. 
About this time of the year every agricultural paper 
receives many inquiries of how to propagate our native 
persimmon, and what are the best varieties, and as 
I have been at the work for four years, and have 
changed nearly every wild persimmon tree on my plan¬ 
tation into fine ones I am going to tell the readers 
of The R. N.-Y. how it is done. Prof. Van Deman 
said last year in this paper that it was difficult to 
graft the native persimmon. This may be true about 
grafting, but it is not true when you use the Texas 
chip-bud method. I have often got 90 per cent of 
the buds to grow, which is good even for the peach. 
Any shoot from the size of a lead pencil up to 
one inch in diameter can be budded. Where you can 
find this size in the top of the trees all right, go 
ahead and bud them. Where there are no such shoots 
top the tree and bud next year when the shoots put 
out. I keep trees topped and ready for budding each 
Spring. This,budding is done just as the sap rises 
and the trees are beginning to put out, and done with 
buds that you have kept damp and cold. Take a lot 
of old cloth and soak it in boiling wax, then let it 
cool, and tear into pieces about an inch square. Punch 
a hole in the middle of each piece for the bud to 
protrude through. You can punch this, with a baling 
needle, a nail or any sharp pointed instrument, but do 
not get the hole too big. These pieces of cloth are 
to be put over the bud after you insert it, and tied 
carefully beginning tying at the top and ending at the 
bottom. When the bud has been inserted about three 
weeks, untie the string from below the bud and tie it 
above, then top the shoot, let nothing grow but the 
fine bud, and leave the waxed cloth on. The bud will 
grow through it and it will finally drop off. Cut a 
piece out of the stock just the size of the bud. Cut 
the bud with a small piece of bark and wood to it, 
PROCESS OF BUDDING PERSIMMON. Fio. 167. 
A shows bud fitted into bed in stock; B and C are wrap¬ 
pers of waxed cloth with eyelets in center for buds to peep 
through; D shows the wrapper put on and tied with a 
string. 
insert in the place cut for it. Try to make the fit 
as perfect as possible, and tie very tightly. You will 
have to be careful about propping the buds when they 
begin to grow too fast 
The illustrations given with this article, made by 
Mr. Chas. L. Edwards of Texas, and used by his 
kind permission (Figs. 167 and 168), will do more 
to explain how this budding is done than all my 
words. The kinds of native persimmons sent out by 
the Department at Washington are Josephine, Early 
Golden, Ida Ruby, Golden Gem, Hicks, Ellwood, Mil¬ 
ler, Marion, Silkifine, Munson’s Hybrid, Ruby and 
Stout. I have all of them growing upon my planta¬ 
tion. Josephine is said to be the finest of all. I 
saw ripe persimmons on Early Golden the first week 
in August last year. 
I have just sent to the Department at Washington 
the finest lot of persimmon buds I ever saw. As 
long as they last they will be distributed to the people 
of the United States free of charge. Please do not 
write to me for buds for two reasons; first of which 
is that by the time this*appears all my buds will be in 
GROWTH OF PERSIMMON BUD. Fig. 168. 
At right, bud-shoot and wrapper at end of season; at 
left A shows a scion of improved wood from which a bud 
has been broken; B and C give front and side views of 
the bud, and D the bed cut in the stock to receive the bud. 
growth, and unfit for use; the second is I am too 
busy to attend to this. You get to work and change 
all those old worthless male persimmons into Jos¬ 
ephines, and other fine varieties. It is a far nobler 
work than talking politics and they will live and be 
a blessing to your children and to your grandchildren 
for years to come. sam. h. James. 
Louisiana. 
The florist can sometimes sympathize with the farmer 
regarding that elusive consumer’s dollar. In March we 
heard of a great New York retailer who paid $10 for 
40,000 violets, and $170 for 90,000 daffodil flowers. These 
were retailed through department stores. Violet growing 
has not been a get-rich-quick scheme this Winter and we 
think some of the people who grew the daffodils referred 
to above will not welcome Holland bulb agents very cor¬ 
dially this Spring. 
April 13, 
SOY BEANS FOR NORTHERN WISCONSIN. 
In reply to some of the questions asked by S. E. M. 
your correspondent from Wausau, Wisconsin, on page 
189, I am sure that Soy beans can be grown profitably 
at Wausau on sandy soils. During the last six years 
the writer has been experimenting with Soy beans 
of different varieties in the northern half of the State, 
both in cooperation with farmers and particularly at 
the University experimental farms located at Iron 
River in Bayfield County, in the extreme northern 
part of the State, at Spooner in Washburn County, and 
at Ellis Junction in Marinette County, all these places 
being north of latitude 45. The results at Iron River 
have been as follows: With the Early Black Soy 
beans as an average of four seasons gave an average 
yield of 3,860 pounds of cured hay and 18% bushels 
of seed per acre. This variety also matured for two 
years in succession on the Spooner Branch Station 
and at the Ellis Junction sub-station. We have found 
the Soy bean a very valuable crop to plant as a sub¬ 
stitute fofl clover where the latter fails to catch. Soy 
beans planted at Ellis Junction in Marinette County, 
June 16, 1910, on a piece of land where sugar beets 
failed owing to dry weather, gave a yield of over two 
tons of cured hay per acre. The same season at Iron 
River we had a field of clover which was dried up on 
account of extreme dry weather from which a small 
quantity of hay was harvested the latter part of June. 
This field was plowed up and on June 1, planted to 
Early Black Soy beans, and the soil properly inoc¬ 
ulated, and from this field a yield of one ton of cured 
hay was obtained. At Wausau, Soy beans, if intended 
for seed, should be planted from the 25th of May to 
the 1st of June in drills 24 to 36 inches apart, dropping 
a seed approximately every four inches. Clean culti¬ 
vation should be given much as is given to corn. For 
seed I would recommend the growing of the Wiscon¬ 
sin Early Black. The seed can probably be secured 
from different seedsmen or from farmery who have 
been growing Soy beans in cooperation with the Sta¬ 
tion. If your correspondent will write us, we will be 
in a position to put him in touch with growers who 
can supply him with good seed. The results as given 
above were obtained on sandy soils. It is believed that 
the Soy bean is destined to be grown quite extensively 
in Northern Wisconsin, particularly on the sandy 
classes of soil. At the present time there is a good 
market for the Soy bean seed at prices ranging, from 
$2 to $3 a bushel. One thing I forgot to mention, and 
that is the necessity of proper soil inoculation. As is 
well known Soy beans when properly inoculated drar; 
upon the nitrogen of the atmosphere, but in order to 
do this it is necessary to introduce the proper bacteria, 
The Station stands ready to furnish soil to such farm¬ 
ers as may want to use it in moderate quantities. So 
far as cow peas go, will say that they are somewhat 
more subject to frost and at the places mentioned they 
have not given satisfactory returns. We have fed and 
are now feeding Soy bean hay to dairy cattle and 
horses with good results. Experiments by different 
stations have shown Soy beans to be very nearly if 
not quite equal to Alfalfa hay. They are very high 
in protein and oil content. e. j. delwiche. 
Wisconsin Experiment Station. 
FARMERS AND BETTER CROPS. 
Of course farmers would not or do not so see it now, but 
that subject la of vastly greater consequence to them than 
particular breeds, fancy shapes, rarely prolific fruits and 
the like because they cannot now retain for any length of 
time any benefit derived from Improved farming. If they 
all raised more crops or better crops or superior animals 
they would merely be milked that much more. 
Washington. Robert s. docbleday. 
This writer refers to a recent discussion of the land 
tax question. We can easily find men who will under¬ 
take to prove that one of a dozen things is responsible 
for trouble with farming. One will say land tenure, 
another liquor, another banking system, another rail¬ 
roads, and so on. While you can hardly bring them, 
together in an agreement as to the cause they are all 
beginning to see the effect. In fact, the “two blades 
of grass” theory is having a hard time. We all know 
that part of the one blade is now wasted because 
transportation and sale costs too much. Whenever the 
advocates of the “two blades” start out to figure they, 
prove that the farmer would get less for the two 
blades than he now gets for one, while the handlers 
and the sellers would get more for carrying the two 
blades. If all were to follow the two blades theory 
the premium for improved farming and hard work 
would be smaller returns for yourself and larger ones 
for the middlemen. Now we have advanced this idea 
repeatedly. We understand some of the scientific men 
say it is nonsense. We invite them to come forward 
and prove in public what they say in private. Tell us 
just what will follow if our farmers w’ork out the 
two blades theory without getting their fair share 
of the proceeds from one blade. 
