20 
wind and cold reached him just the same, and he could 
freeze as easily as in the old market. With the open¬ 
ing of the new market a different scale of charges 
went into effect, made possible by a city ordinance 
which fixed the price of stands at $25 per year or 
season, and wagons to the curb 25 cents a day, also 
closing the market at 11 a. m. 
SOME TROUBLES ENCOUNTERED. — The 
marketmaster was a grouchy, churlish officer, and 
this 11 o’clock closing gave him just the club he had 
been looking for. Customers would be in the act of 
making a purchase, or in placing articles just bought 
in their baskets, when the 11 o’clock bell would ring, 
the market master would compel them to return goods 
and leave the market. Any complaint to him was 
met by the impudent reply that if anyone didn’t like 
the town he could stay out of it Committees from 
the gardeners met with about the same satisfaction 
at the hands of the Board of Public Safety. They 
were told they ought to be thankful people would 
buy from them; that they ought to be glad they didn’t 
have to pay $50; that every stand could be sold for 
$35, but it afterwards developed that all the stands 
were not sold even at $25. The marketers had no 
organization, and it was out of reason for an individ¬ 
ual to take this question into court and expect to get 
a run for his money. Anyone knows that however 
just and right one’s case may be, without sufficient 
money or support a poor man has absolutely no chance 
when pitted against a city. The call for justice may 
be loud but it cannot make itself heard under such d 
handicap. The gardeners decided to take their medi¬ 
cine, bitter as it was, until such a time as they could 
organize and put themselves in a position to fight for 
their rights. 
A PRODUCERS’ ORGANIZATION.—In the 
meantime the Board of Safety and the market master 
became more arrogant than ever, doubtless thinking 
that the failure of the gardeners’ committee to get 
any satisfaction had settled matters once and for all. 
Six of the 20 townships in the county organized farm¬ 
ers’ clubs, and in 1910 and 1911 these clubs were united 
by the formation of the Allen Co. Federation of 
Farmers’ Clubs, each club being represented by three 
delegates. The Federation at once took up the fight, 
and in 1911 tried to ascertain the actual cost of main¬ 
taining the market, and also what was received from 
stand and wagon rentals. They employed an attorney 
to look into the matter, and after an investigation he 
decided to take their case on condition that he would 
charge no fee unless he won the case. 
A CASE AT LAW.—About this time Mr. S., who 
had attended this market for 40 years, was arrested 
and fined $10 and costs for selling 10 cents worth of 
apples five minutes after the 11 o’clock bell rang. In¬ 
stead of submitting to this injustice he appealed the 
case to the circuit court, where it was postponed and 
continued until finally the city made a proposition to 
dismiss the case if Mr. S. would pay the costs. This 
he refused to do. The case has since been compro¬ 
mised by the city agreeing to dismiss and pay costs. 
The city need not have been mixed up in such an ill- 
advised affair if the market master had not over¬ 
reached himself in causing Mr. S.’s arrest. It ap¬ 
pears that Mr. S. had placed his produce in his wagon 
and started to leave the market when accosted by a 
customer who wanted some apples. The sale was 
made on the street and not on the market. Anyone 
has a right to sell anything they raise on the city’s 
streets. The Federation’s attorney immediately got 
busy, and in behalf of the farmers he asked for an 
injunctiQn against the city restraining them from col¬ 
lecting fees under the ordinance which had caused so 
much trouble. This was granted at once, and from 
October 26, 1911, to April 2, 1912, no fees were col¬ 
lected. Though the city council did rush through an¬ 
other ordinance, they were warned not to collect any 
fees under it. The city was cited to appear in court 
and show by its books the cost of conducting the 
market, which it claimed amounted to $3,900 annually. 
To show such an expense $40 was charged for elec¬ 
tric lights on a day market, water was charged for an 
entire year, when there are but 71 market days during 
which an open fountain could be used. A State law 
provides for the lighting and water of public build¬ 
ings. The findings of the court are printed on page 
41. 
HOW IT ENDED.—A committee of the gardeners 
met with the Board of Safety, who by the way were 
ready to listen by this time, and compromised on $15 
for stands and 15 cents for wagons to the curb, and 
the battle ended. The foregoing serves to show what 
organization and cooperation can do. Out of 200 to 
250 people who attend this market about 40 or 50 paid 
the expenses of this case, the Federation and each of 
the clubs subscribing to the cause. 
HUGH HARTMAN. 
'ttte; rural, new-yorksr 
FEEDING ALFALFA TO SWINE. 
We use Alfalfa meal in some of our rations with 
good results. Especially is this true in the case of 
rations for breeding swine. Without question the 
addition of Alfalfa, clover or some of the finer legu¬ 
minous hays not only decreases the cost*of the ration 
for breeding animals, but also makes it more efficient, 
since it adds bulk to the ration as well as protein and 
mineral matter, which is often lacking in corn belt 
rations. One ration used for sows, not suckling pigs, 
in dry lot is as follows: Corn, 13 parts; shorts, 10 
parts; bran, five parts; Alfalfa meal, five parts. The 
above ration is also used for boars. 
Willson in some work at this station fed clover hay 
ad libitum to some brood sows from September 2 to 
May 20. These sows were fed a maintenance ration, 
grain being supplied to furnish the food nutrients 
needed besides those furnished in the hay. He found 
the average hay eaten per day to be about 1J4 pound. 
The quality of this hay was only medium. With the 
be t quality the sows would doubtless have consumed 
much more hay. The Nebraska Station (Press Bul¬ 
letin No. 20) fed two lots of brood sows for a period 
of eight weeks, which they report as follows: 
One lot of 22 young sows was fed one-half corn and 
one-half ground Alfalfa while another similar lot was 
fed one-half ground barley and one-half ground Alfalfa. 
Both these lots made fine gains, and at farrowing time 
produced large, strong litters, showing that the ration 
had been nearly ideal as a ration for brood sows. A lot 
of 13 mature brood sows weighing 25S pounds each were 
also placed on a ration of one-fourth corn and three- 
fourths Alfalfa. They consumed two pounds of corn 
per day and six pounds of cut Alfalfa. They continued 
FEEDING! ALFALFA HAY TO HOGS. Fig. 11. 
on this ration throughout the Winter, during the first 
five Weeks without the withdrawal of any animals. These 
sows commenced to drop litters after the fifth week, so 
that records could not he kept after that time. At the 
end of the fifth week on the above ration the sows 
weighed an average of 264 pounds. As their weight 
one week earlier was a little less than the original weight, 
it may be assumed that these hogs got an extra good 
fill before the last weight, and that the ration fed was 
practically a maintenance ration. These sows kept in 
fine condition, farrowing during February and March, 
and saved large litters in every case. They were fed 
a ration one-half corn or barley and one-half Alfalfa 
while suckling pigs. 
The above station also fed Alfalfa hay, Alfalfa meal 
ani chopped Alfalfa to fattening swine. When the 
ration consisted of one-fourth hay the hay was worth 
as much pound for pound as cornmeal. When Alfalfa 
hay made up one-half of the ration the returns from 
this hay were less, the ration being too bulky for fat¬ 
tening swine. The ground Alfalfa gave no better 
results than the hay. The Nebraska station recom¬ 
mends the feeding of third crop Alfalfa hay in racks 
wi'*t shelled or ear corn in addition, as being more 
economical than chopping or grinding the hay. Fig. 
11 shows a rack which we use at the Missouri sta¬ 
tion for feeding hay to swine. l. K weaver. 
Mo. Experiment Station. 
A SAMPLE OF THE '‘FRANKING” PRIVILEGE. 
I enclose envelope of “Sugar at a Glance,” sent me 
a while ago through the much abused franking priv¬ 
ilege. As you will observe, on account of having in¬ 
complete address, it has passed through the hands of 
14 different carriers, and time was wasted by two 
high-salaried searchers in their commendable effort to 
locate “yours truly.” What have I ever done to Henry 
Cabot Lodge, Esq., that he should single me out for 
such treatment to send a book, weighing 9 l /> ounces 
(have it here in case you want it), and which is as 
useful to me as a pair of dumbbells to a drowning 
person? I am sure that the cost of printing and de¬ 
livering this “Glance at Sugar” (through Mr. Lodge’s 
spectacles), must have been quite a tidy little sum. In 
its foolishness it is about on a level with free seeds. 
New York City. albert schimmel. 
R. N.-Y.—That is a sample of the “franking” abuse. 
Senator Lodge represents Masachusetts. Mr. Schim¬ 
mel runs a dairy in New York City. He is not a 
“constituent” of Senator Lodge, and he has no possible 
use for a big pamphlet on sugar making. Yet this big 
January 11, 
mail package chases around after him as if it were a 
matter of life or death. It is just this fool thing 
which has so long enabled the express companies to 
hold up a fair parcels post, for just as long as such 
things are permitted it will be possible to put up the 
“economy” argument and claim that the mail service 
“costs too much.” This “franking privilege” is a com¬ 
bination of fool and fraud. 
NEEDED—A PRACTICAL FARM TRACTOR. 
I should like to know whether anyone has undertaken 
to build a tractor really designed and planned to be run 
over a common clay road. What are sizes, cost and 
abilities of tractor to haul on roads or in field? I do 
not believe the small wheeled tractor will go over roads 
that are not hard and fairly smooth. j. a. g. 
Virginia. 
This is the point many farmers are asking about. 
Thus far we think these tractors have been mostly 
used for road work on a hard, stone surface, more or 
less like a city pavement. They are also greatly needed 
on softer roads. We find that farmers are studying 
the question carefully. They want the facts, and seem 
to understand clearly what is needed in their work. 
Here is one letter from Ohio: 
The Need of a Tractor. 
It seems to me that one of the greatest problems be¬ 
fore the average farmer to-day is to secure the necessary 
amount of power to do the work which in the future will 
be necessary for the twofold task of producing profitable 
crops and keeping the land in productive condition, or 
improving it if it is not in such condition. Wherever this 
result has been attained in other times and countries, it 
lias entailed an unending burden of labor and privation 
upon the agricultural motive power. This may seem 
overdrawn, but wherever a dense population over a wide 
area has lived upon its own agricultural products the 
statement is within the truth, as many recorded famines 
in such parts of the earth bear witness. The major por¬ 
tion of our agricultural population has heretofore been 
little more than agricultural miners, taking out of the 
soil a crop as often as possible, and moving to a fresh 
mine when the old was exhausted. In our richer agri¬ 
cultural parts great numbers of these successful miners 
enjoy comforts and luxuries which in other countries can 
only be had by those who can draw profit from the labor 
of many. The mining stage of our agriculture draws to 
a close. The successful farmer of the future must find 
practical ways of preparing in his soil each year as much 
or more available plant foot than his crops take out, and 
will not have his former advantage over the farmer of 
other countries, nor does it appear that he will ever be 
able to command the certain supply of cheap labor that 
in European and Asiatic lands has been brought to bear 
upon this problem. The miner-farmer’s standard of 
cultivation has been the least possible amount of horse 
labor per acre that would produce a single crop per year. 
This standard has become entirely insufficient, and to 
meet the changed condition we must be able to concentrate 
a larger power upon the heaviest work of the farm, plow¬ 
ing and the other work of soil preparation. The foregoing 
platitudes will serve as introduction to the statement that 
there is not yet on the market a real agricultural tractor, 
and by that I moan a machine that will go on a field in 
the Spring when it Ls “just dry enough to plow,’’ and 
or more available plant food than his crops take out, and 
statements in The It. N.-Y. indicate that when the soil 
is in that condition the traction engine, either steam or 
explosive, is useless. To be sure the tractor will haul 
several loaded wagons on a hard road, pull saplings, and 
when the ground is too dry and hard to plow with horses 
it is just right for the tractor. This sort of work 
“helps some” but it does not solve the problem of rightly 
preparing a considerable acreage during the horse-killing 
weather of our Spring. A fraction of the inventiveness 
that has been lavished upon automobiles would have pro¬ 
duced a tractor that would relieve our horses of a job 
that is killing on them if well done, and killing on the 
crop if not well done. I believe I could direct the building 
of such a tractor, but I do not own a machine shop, and 
a little experience with the charging end of one does not 
encourage experiments. h. k. greene. 
Ohio. 
Here is another note from Nova Scotia, which shows 
what the farmers are thinking about: 
That article on the “Gasoline Horse” was buncombe. 
It did not tell enough. What does a tractor of the 12- 
borses-a-day cost? How many years are they guaranteed 
to stay in working condition? What is the average cost 
of repairs per annum for first five-year period, and what 
after first five years have passed, using machine say 100 
days in the year? Most of all, what sort of guarantees 
will the various companies give that their machines will 
toe all those various marks? Why not print letters 
answering those and other points which will be evident 
to you? Perhaps weight, and turning circle in practice 
and adaptability to undulating orchard ground are a few. 
JOHN BUCHANAN. 
Evidently what is called “inventive genius” is hard 
at work on these tractors. Consul Halstead of Bir¬ 
mingham, England, sends this report of a new plow. 
If it will keep in the furrow it beats many plowmen 
we know: 
Mr. Albert Wyles, has devised a small motor-propelled 
plow which is said to promise considerable change in 
agriculture. With a four-lioi'se power engine this plow cuts 
a furrow nearly six inches deep at a speed well over three 
miles an hour. After the first furrow is cut the plow 
need only be started, and it will automatically cut the 
next furrow. The fuel cost per day is between 70 and 
75 cents, it is said. The cost of horse plowing in the 
Evesham district ranges from $3.15 to $4.85 per acre. 
Tlie plow weighs about 700 pounds. A cultivator, some¬ 
what lighter in weight, lias also been designed for use 
among root crops and in orchards; this, of course, must 
be guided through the narrow channels. 
