1154 
THE) RURAL NEW-YORKER 
November 1G, 
noon a lunch is served by the domestic science class, 
after which a social hour follows, giving opportunity 
to renew old acquaintances and form new ones. In 
this way it has done more to promote the social side 
of the community than any other agency. Some 250 
people are members of this organization and for the 
past year the average attendance has been well over 
100. Besides the regular meetings, three corn shows, 
a poultry show, two four-day meetings and a field 
demonstration of spraying have been held. 
There are many illustrations of better farming and 
larger crops as a direct result of the efforts of the 
school and institute. Mr. S., living a mile west of 
town, raised the best 10-acre field of grass in the 
county by strictly following directions given him. 
His farm was notably poor and had not raised a 
good crop of grass in the memory of living men. 
Mr. R. harvested 12 bushels of sweet cherries from 
a tree on which they had hitherto rotted before 
ripening, by spraying with self-cooked lime and 
sulphur. Mr. H. was induced to discard deep culti¬ 
vation of corn, and despite the severe drought of 
1911, he won the prize for best 10 ears of white corn. 
Mr. C. and others are successfully raising Alfalfa. 
His neighbor, Mr. B., changed his ration for cows, 
making it conform to the feeding standards, with the 
result that the cost was reduced and the flow of milk 
increased. Fourteen dairy herds have cleared them¬ 
selves of tuberculosis by the aid of the school, all 
of whom had for years resisted the efforts of the 
district board of health to compel a test. 
I could name a hundred other specific instances; in 
fact, so common have better farm practices become 
that the remark was made by one of the best farmers, 
“Had the drought of 1911 come 10 years ago it 
would have brought ruin to the county; but the 
practice of deep plowing, shallow cultivation and 
more humus has been so industriously taught by the 
school and farmers’ institute that a fair crop was 
made without rain.” This better farming has, of 
course, been reflected in the higher price of real 
estate. In the four years since the school was 
established the price of real estate has advanced at 
least 30 per cent and some farms have doubled in 
value. It is not easy to give specific instances of 
rise in real estate, because men who are making good 
on their farms do not sell. 
We have no regular transportation of pupils from 
the rural schools, as the impassable Winter roads 
and the objections of the people have proved to be 
as yet insurmountable obstacles. However, some 20 
pupils do come in their own conveyances, and as 
many more board in the village. 
The demonstration work of the United States De¬ 
partment of Agriculture has been organized in this 
county but a few weeks and its relations to the school 
are simply those of friendly cooperation. The di¬ 
rector of the school has acted as secretary of the 
farmers’ institute and has actually done all of the 
extension and demonstration work in the county. 
A Boys’ Corn Club has been in successful opera¬ 
tion for three years. A Girls’ Tomato Canning Club 
has 40 members, while 18 boys are raising competitive 
acres of corn. Some of this work will probably de¬ 
volve upon the county demonstration agent, but thus 
far it has been done by the director of the school on 
his own initiative and solely for the purpose of 
making the school of the utmost value to the com¬ 
munity and with the agricultural high school as the 
social and intellectual center of community life, de¬ 
velop an ideal rural life. h. f. button. 
“MISAPPLIED GUFF.” 
We have not been asked to name the American 
champion manufacturer of horticultural “guff.” 
That’s good, for we should be hard pressed to pick 
a champion from the large list of gentlemen who 
pose as hot-air experts. Supposing we were asked 
to serve as guff judge (an improbable thought) we 
should imitate other judges and make up a scale 
of points about as follows: 
Loving sympathy . 10 
Big story . 30 
Appeal to imagination . 10 
Bluff . 10 
Suggested profits . 30 
Human nature . 10 
Total.100 
Others might change this table somewhat and cut 
down “loving sympathy,” but the [champion guff 
artist is a man who is to lift you out of poverty and 
trouble—if you will only buy his particular trees or 
plants. The star of hope is a great card with the 
guff man. On the face of the printed evidence we 
should give Luther Burbank 95 points—a very high 
score. He may be a little shy on “loving sympathy,” 
but his literature gives heaping measure of the others. 
We are informed, however, that the Burbank “guff” 
does not originate with the “originator” at all, but 
is prepared by enthusiastic friends, much to the sor¬ 
row of Mr. Burbank. This, of course, puts him out 
of the running. 
We were willing to give Gilbertson, the raspberry 
man, 93 points until we learned how he fell down on 
human nature. Gilbertson is far ahead on “loving 
sympathy.” If you get his first letter and do not 
respond you get another referring to your wife and 
children and how you should provide for them and 
CONCRETE ABUTMENT OF BRIDGE. Fig. 476. 
r ake all the thorns from their pathway by purchas¬ 
ing Gilbertson’s raspberry plants. We called that 
perfect on “human nature” until one of our readers 
wrote this way: 
What does this man mean by writing me about my 
wife and children? I am a bachelor and have no thought 
of being married ! 
There is where Gilbertson aimed his guff at the 
wrong mark. As a conscientious judge we must cut 
his score down. 
We had a new candidate for honors, and had given 
a score of 92 to Wm. C. Moore & Co. This was on 
account of a letter which Moore & Co. sent out to 
agents last year. It appeared from this letter that 
the gentleman receiving it had after “careful con¬ 
sideration” been appointed general agent: 
It has been my good fortune to inquire in regard to 
your reputation and ability with special interest as we 
have written you before. Before the board of directors 
appointed you, I appeared before them as president o£ 
the company and stated that you should have full five 
per cent commission on sub-agents’ business. I did this 
knowing that we had many general agents receiving less, 
but as I stated to the board, I realize you are a man 
FARM SUSPENSION BRIDGE. Fig. 477. 
who can make money at any business you undertake, 
and I also realize that it is to our advantage to offer 
you our very best inducements right on the start. You 
will be able to produce a large amount of business and 
you are certainly worth more than a man who produces 
a small amount of business. The three per cent mentioned 
refers to orders taken by sub-agents under the wholesale 
price list. 
Now, you cannot beat that. Burbank’s guff makers 
would resign rather than attempt it. We were about 
to put the score up to 96 when this letter came from 
one of our Boston readers, who received this letter: 
Can you tell me if this firm is a legitimate business 
firm or are they “fakers”? It reads like a “gold brick” 
to me. Would like to expose them if they are swindlers, 
and put the matter in the hands of the Post Office De¬ 
partment. F. J. ti. 
This gentleman is a dealer in manuscripts, coins, 
stamps and similar goods. The idea of electing him 
by a special vote of “directors” to serve as a nursery 
agent is a worse break than Gilbertson made when 
he sent his “wife and children” letter to the bachelor! 
Of course, we explained the situation to our Boston 
friend. He was not dealing with swindlers, but with 
guffers. We had to cut out the entire 10 points for 
human nature and give only 82—which brings them 
down to the amateur list. 
APPLE DISEASES IN MARYLAND. 
This has been rather an unusual season in Mary¬ 
land in regard to the apple crop. During the latter 
part of July and the first part of August the weather 
was quite cool, the temperature dropping as low as 45 
degrees at night on two or three occasions. As a re¬ 
sult of this condition, as it has seemed to me, there was 
a consequent check in the development of the fruit, 
and the crop has matured earlier than normal, with 
a large percentage of the fruit dropping from the 
tree prematurely. There has also been much com¬ 
plaint that fungous diseases have been unusually prev¬ 
alent. This coincides with the well-known fact that 
apples which mature before the cool weather of the 
Autumn days are much more susceptible to rots than 
those maturing later. With all the publicity that has 
tbeen given in recent years to the subject of plant 
diseases, and the demonstration of the value of spray- 
ing, it is surprising how many people still imagine 
that sooty fungus, blotch, scab, etc., are only natural 
characteristics of the fruit, and who seem slow to 
believe that such imperfections may be prevented to 
a large extent by thorough applications of fungicides. 
In that connection it may be interesting to note that 
the lime-sulphur solution as a Summer spray for the 
apples, in this section at least, has not proved as ef¬ 
fective in controlling fungus diseases as the Bordeaux 
mixture. However, it seems advisable to use the lime- 
sulphur solution while the fruit is small in order to 
avoid the Bordeaux injury on tender-skinned varie¬ 
ties, following the latter sprayings with the Bor¬ 
deaux mixture. w. R. ballard. 
Maryland Experiment Station. 
THAT CHAMPION CORN YIELD. 
We raised here, with Eureka corn, an average of 22 
tons, lacking 125 pounds, on a field of 25 acres. The 
writer wrote the seed company the amount of corn raised 
on the level, and they came back, stating that it is a 
nice crop for an off year, but that the record was 70 tons 
per acre. I questioned the proposition and they referred 
me to you, so I am writing to find out on what kind of 
ground that crop was made, under what conditions it was 
made, what fertilizer was used, and who raised the crop. 
Three Oaks, Mich. E . K . w . 
We dislike being tangled up in a big crop story; 
we know only too well how most people regard such 
tales. However this is what we know about the big 
corn crop. It was grown by Mrs. H. Will Harris of 
Lenawee Co., Mich. She gave us the following state¬ 
ment regarding the soil and its preparation: 
We planted two-thirds bushel of ear corn on three acres 
of laud. One acre is a fine clay loam and was used only 
for pasture the year before. After this land had been 
carefully prepared w e drilled into it with a grain drill 350 
pounds of phosphate. We set the drill for 200 pounds 
to acre, and went over it one way ; then we set the drill 
for 150 pounds to acre and went the other way over the 
land. This acre yielded something more than 50 tons of 
fodder and ripe corn. There is something more than 100 
bushels of ripe ears of corn. The other two acres are 
gravelly loam, which had been thickly covered with rich 
manure from the cow stable during the Winter. One 
acre of this piece, the one on which we won the prize, 
had been, part of it, an old henyard, and the rest an old 
hogyard. This land was carefully prepared and some 
phosphate hoed into the ground after the corn was up. 
the hoeing on both pieces always being just thoroughly 
stirring the top of the soil, not deep enough to disturb 
the rootlets. The corn was planted with a two-horse 
planter, set to sow seven inches apart in the row. The 
clay loam was planted May 15, the other two acres May 
30. It was carefully cultivated, and, as said above, hoed. 
After the corn was as high as a man’s head the foliage 
was so dense there was no chance for weeds to grow, 
neither could It be hoed or cultivated. 
On December 9, 1911, we printed pictures showing 
shocks of this corn. Mrs. Harris claims that on this 
particular acre there were harvested 140,800 pounds 
of green fodder. In estimating the yield the city 
surveyor of Adrian measured the field and also 
measured off four separate square rods. The corn 
on those square rods was hauled to Adrian and 
weighed by the surveyor and gave 3,500 pounds. From 
this the acre yield was estimated. The other two 
acres yielded about 57 tons each. We spent some lit¬ 
tle time in investigating this report and have found 
no flaws in it. The yield is so remarkable that we 
do not like to print it, for we are forced to admit 
that 25 tons per acre on our own farm would justify 
us in calling in the neighbors to see the champion 
yield of the vicinity. 
