34 
THE RURAL NEW-VORKER 
January 1 I, 
Valuation of Nitrogen Fertilizers. 
On page 1264 we stated the new plan 
of valuing mixed fertilizers at the East¬ 
ern experiment stations. Nitrogen is 
the most expensive element in these fer¬ 
tilizers, and up to within a short time 
only one class of this nitrogen was 
made. Some of it might be worth 18 
cents a pound for the first season’s crop, 
while other portions of it might be 
worth nothing. Yet the fertilizer manu¬ 
facturer or agent was given a “valua¬ 
tion” based on the theory that all of this 
nitrogen was of the highest grade. The 
injustice of any such “valuation” was 
apparent, and the chemists have now 
worked out plans for classifying or sort¬ 
ing out this nitrogen according to its 
solubility—for that is the true test of 
value. This was explained on page 1264. 
Now the California station has gone 
further and shows from the manufac¬ 
turer’s guarantee what the organic nitro¬ 
gen is derived from. In the last bulle¬ 
tin issued we find that a large proportion 
of such sold in California nitrogen is 
derived from bat manure. All this ef¬ 
fort to show up the true composition of 
mixed grades of any description is fine 
work. 
The “ Gold Watch” Fraud. 
I write this letter for the benefit of 
your readers, if you see best to publish. 
On December 5 there came a man about 
40 years of age, weighing about 180 
pounds, five feet 10 inches to six feet 
in height, of Irish extraction, smooth 
face, who pretended to be passing our 
place, and wished to know how far it 
was to Plainfield, N. J. From this con¬ 
versation it led on to telling me how 
the night before he had lost $80 in a 
wallet in some saloon, and that his home 
was in Alleghany, Pa., and in order to 
reach there he must give his watch, 
which he produced to show me, to some 
one and get $9 for a ticket to get home 
with. He also produced a bill showing 
that he bought the watch October 14, 
1912, from Hoyte & Co., 117 Maiden 
Lane, New York. The bill was made 
out for 14K, 1 Vallon gold watch, $55, 
and receipted paid. After some talking 
and saying that he ought to know bet¬ 
ter than to get into saloons, and that 
he would forward money as soon as he 
reached home, I gave him $9. He had 
no sooner gone than I was somewhat 
suspicioned that he was a fake, and a 
couple of days later I took the watch to 
a reliable jeweler, and he said it was 
worth about $1.85, with a very small 
amount of gold wash and a cheap move¬ 
ment. I at once turned the bill over to 
our chief of police, and gave description 
of the man. This is no doubt a very 
good lesson for me, and the chances are 
I may never hear or see the man again, 
but that your readers may be warned, I 
give the story. c. w. f. 
Summit, N. J. 
R. N.-Y.—This is rather a new one. 
“C. W. F.” is a good citizen to pass the 
story along, for most men would prefer 
not to publish their “gold brick” experi¬ 
ence. So “watch” for this gentleman 
and let the works of the bulldog run him 
down. 
A Disgusted Westerner. 
That the green of the Far-Away Hills 
Is apt to fade upon close inspection, and 
the stones and briars to become more evi¬ 
dent, is the experience of most men who 
have reached middle age. The present 
“back-to-the-land” movement is responsible 
for many shattered ideals and blasted hopes 
of those whose primal instincts have in¬ 
duced them to leave crowded streets and 
fierce competition of the cities for the 
quiet and repose of country life. To the 
average city dweller who for years has felt 
nothing but hard stone beneath his feet 
and bruised his elbow upon brick and glass 
at every turn, the country is a vision of 
shimmering meadows, of broad cool porches, 
perfume-laden breezes and a yielding turf 
which is a balm to weary feet. He little 
realizes the unending toil which rounds the 
shoulders and warps the hands of those 
who are compelled to wrest a living from 
an unwilling soil, and if, in addition to his 
handicap of small capital, undeveloped 
muscles, and soft palms, he is tempted to 
seek a home in the hills of some distant 
State, where hardier men than he have 
failed, he is likely to endorse the lamenta¬ 
tion of a Western office worker, who, at¬ 
tracted by the offer of cheap lands in New 
York, moved his family into her rugged 
hills a few years ago. This man in re¬ 
sponse to an invitation from the State 
Agricultural Department for suggestions as 
to any way in which it could aid the farm¬ 
ers of his section, submitted thp following 
reply, a reply which doubtless will find an 
echo in many a weary heart. 
“I cannot suggest any ways of assistance. 
I was influenced by the publication of farms 
for sale in New York State to buy a farm 
here. Coming from the Far West, this is 
my third Summer, and I think conditions 
could hardly be more unsatisfactory. How 
the farmers’ institutes can alter a most 
abominable climate, I cannot see. No farmer 
in the hills expects that more than one 
or two crops out of a variety of five plant¬ 
ed will succeed. All the farms are mort¬ 
gaged. How conditions could be worse. I 
cannot imagine; wretched schools; the 
only branch of farming which seems to be 
successful is that of teaching agriculture at 
the expense of the taxpayers.” 
The writer is acquainted with the farms 
of this man and his neighbprs, and knows 
that their owners represent the different 
grades of success common to his section of 
the State. Some are debt-laden beyond 
hope of emergence, and some are prosperous 
land owners, with money in the bank; but 
these are the yeomanry of the soil, men 
who were bred to hard toil, and who have 
learned that success in their calling comes 
only to those who keep doggedly at it, 
through good season and bad, sun and 
storm, success and failure. Let no city 
dweller dream that nature gives her prod¬ 
ucts for the asking, or that any amount or 
brains or business training can atone for 
the lack of brawn, or the means to hire it. 
M. B. D. 
A Double School Tax. 
Where should I pay my school tax? I am 
a resident of the town of Ix>rraine, and 
have always paid taxes in that town. My 
farm is part in the town of Lorraine, Jef¬ 
ferson County, and part in the town of 
Boylston, Oswego County. This year they 
divided the assessment so part of my farm 
was assessed in Lorraine, in which I live 
and send my children to school, and part 
is assessed in Boylston. Now the trustee in 
this district went to Boylston and got the 
amount of my assessment in that town and 
made out my school tax for my whole 
farm ; then the town of Boylston taxed me 
for the part of my farm which is as¬ 
sessed in their town, so I have paid school 
tax on part of my farm twice, and would 
like to know which district should pay me 
back, as there is a great difference of opin¬ 
ion around here. a. j. p. 
New York. 
In 1911 the General Tax Law was 
amended by providing that all real prop¬ 
erty should be assessed by town assessors 
In the towns where it Is located. Prior to 
this time the law provided that a farm 
which was intersected by a town line was 
to be assessed by the town assessors upon 
the town assessment roll in the town where 
the owner or occupant resided. Under the 
present law, if the farm is situated in two 
or more towns the town assessors of the 
respective towns are required to assess so 
much thereof as lies in their towns. School 
trustees in making their tax lists are re¬ 
quired by law to take their assessments 
from the town assessment roll. If the town 
line and the boundary line of the school 
district are the same the trustees of the 
several school districts in which the farm 
is situated are required to assess so much 
of the farm as lies in their districts. There 
can be no such thing under the proper ap¬ 
plication of the law as double taxation of 
a man's farm which is so situated. The 
trustees are authorized to take only so 
much of the farm as lies in their district. 
This has modified the law relative to the 
assessment of farms for school purposes lti 
all cases where the farm lies partly in one 
town and partly in another. If a farm is 
entirely within a town and is situated in 
two or more school districts it Is assessed 
for school purposes in the district where 
the owner or occupant resides, provided it 
is assessed as one entire tract of land upon 
the town assessment roll. I call your at¬ 
tention to section 411, subdivision 3, of 
the Education Law, as follows: 
“Land lying in one body and occupied 
by the same person, either as owner or 
agent for the same principal, or as tenant 
under the same landlord, if assessed as one 
lot on the. last assessment roll of the town 
after revision by the assessors, shall, 
though situated partly in two or more 
school districts, be taxable in that one of 
them In which such occupant resides. This 
rule shall not apply to land owned by non¬ 
residents of the district, and which shall 
not be occupied by an agent, servant or 
tenant residing in the district. Such un¬ 
occupied real estate shall be assessed as 
non-resident, and a description thereof 
shall be entered in the tax-list.” 
FRANK B. GILBERT. 
N. Y. State Education Department. 
COMING FARMERS’ MEETINGS. 
Ayrshire Breeders' Association, annual 
meeting, Hotel Manhattan, New York, 
Thursday, January 9, 1913. 
Massachusetts Fruit Growers’ Associa¬ 
tion, Ilorticulural Hall, Boston, January 
10-11, 1913. 
New York State Agricultural Society, 
annual meeting, Albany, N. Y., January 13- 
14. 
New Jersey State Board of Agriculture, 
annual meeting, Trenton. January 7-10. 
Peninsula Horticultural Society, twenty- 
sixth annual meeting, Wilmington, Dei., 
January 14-16. 
Delaware Corn Growers’ Association, 
January 15-16. Wilmington, Del. 
Sixteenth exhibition Vermont State Poul¬ 
try Association, St. Albans, Va., January 
14-17. 1913. 
New York State Fruit Growers’ Asso¬ 
ciation, Convention Hall, Rochester, N. Y., 
January 15-17, 1913. 
Fourth Ohio State Apple Show, Zanes¬ 
ville, O., January 20-24, 1913. 
Cleveland, O., Fanciers’ Show, January 
20-25, 1913. 
Twenty-fourth annual meeting of the 
South Dakota State Horticultural Society, 
Bedfleld, S. D., January 21-23, 1913. 
Pennsylvania Dairy Union, Harrisburg. 
Pa., January 21-23. 
Connecticut Dairymen’s Association, 
thirty-second annual convention, Meriden, 
Conn., January 21-23. 
New York State Breeders’ Association, 
annual meeting, Utica, N. Y., January 21- 
23. 
Masachusetts Agricultural College, Am¬ 
herst, Mass., school of apple packing, Jan¬ 
uary 23-29, 1913. 
American Breeders’ Association, Colum¬ 
bia, S. ('., January 25-27, 1913. 
Northeastern Poultry and Pet Stock As¬ 
sociation, Inc., fourth annual show, Green 
Bay, Wis., January 30-31, February 1-3. 
Fifth National Corn Exhibition, State 
Exposition Grounds, Columbia, S. C., Janu¬ 
ary 27 to February 8, 1913. 
Farmers’ Course at Rhode Island State 
College, February 5-7. 
New York State Vegetable Growers’ As¬ 
sociation, College of Agriculture, Ithaca, 
February 11-13, 1913. 
Farmers’ Week, N. Y. State College of 
Agriculture, Ithaca, February 10-15, 1913. 
Jp°o«* 
F *uit 
Howto 
I—JERE is a book of great 
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Reillys 
Reliable 
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WRITE FOR FREE 
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110 Reilly Road 
Dansville, N. Y. 
Fruit Trees 
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Healthy, northern grown Strawberry, 
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L. J. FARMER, Box 320, Pulaski, N.Y* 
AMessage to Apple Growers 
FROM 
MR. THOMAS W. STECK, of Opequon, Va. 
WINNER OF THE EASTERN APPLE TROPHY' 
THE 8750.00 PRIZE CUP DONATED BY THE COE-MORTIMER CO. 
AT THE AMERICAN LAND AND IRRIGATION EXPOSITION 
jWTR. STECK, the winner of 
the magnificent Eastern 
Apple Trophy, has written 
an account of his life work in 
apple growing that should 
prove an inspiration to every 
fruit grower. 
He tells of one block of 300 trees that 
returned $17,974.33 in nine years. 
He describes his methods of Pruning, 
Cultivation, Spraying and Fertilization. 
The whole story is given just as written 
by Mr. Steck in our new booklet en¬ 
titled, “The Winning of the Cup,” a 
copy of which is yours if you will 
write for it promptly. 
A striking feature of this competition is, that it 
developed after the prize was awarded, that 
Mr. Steck raised his prize winning fruit with 
COE-MORTIMER FERTILIZERS, which he 
has used for the past two years ; purchasing 
them in the open market, from one of the Coe- 
Mortimer local agents at Winchester, Va. 
Thus the superior quality of COE-MORTIMER 
FERTILIZERS for fruits is again confirmed. 
If, when you write us, you will tell us the 
brand or make of fertilizer you are now using, 
we shall be glad to send you one of our handsome 1^J3 Calendars. 
Why Not Put Your Fruit in the Prize Winning Class by Purchasing Your 
Fertilizers from 
The Coe-Mortimer Company, 51 Chambers Street, New York City 
