178 
ieu.-ud.ry 8, 
m-IEJ RURAL NEW-YORKER 
A TRIP FOR HOLLY. 
A Disappointment. —On December 
17 a neighbor and myself with a couple 
of hired men (colored) started on a 
40-mile trip with a mule team to Chic- 
amuxen, Md., to get holly for the 
Washington market. We started about 
6 A. M. and arrived at the farm where 
we had bought the holly about 2.30 
P. M. Eight years ago this had been 
my hunting ground for ducks and musk 
rats, so remembering what fine holly 
there used to be there, and holly selling 
well on the Washington market last year, 
we were planning to go down with three 
teams when a friend in the city agreed 
to let us have his auto truck. We 
found there had been a fire through 
the woods since I’d lived down there. 
While there were plenty of berries on 
the holly, the leaves had lost the dark 
green color. After going to that much 
trouble we concluded to get the best 
we could find, if we couldn’t get as 
much as intended. We worked until 
dark and put up with a fisherman near 
by. The next day the auto was to 
come, and we worked hard so as to be 
ready to load when it got there. One 
of the party was to come with the ma¬ 
chine. We enjoyed our outing very 
much until after it was time for the 
auto to be there; then we began to 
worry, as there had been a mist falling 
all day. After we had finished work 
the second day we were told the auto 
had got stalled about three miles away 
about noon, and had gone around a 
distance of 12 to 15 miles farther; then 
we became uneasy, but didn’t know 
which way to go. As we were unable 
to do anything but wait until morning, 
I asked the fisherman to go out hunt¬ 
ing muskrats. He had a fine light; 
we killed a couple, then it began to 
snow, so came back to shanty. About 
2.30 the next morning we were called 
up by the auto crew. They had got 
stuck several times and were almost 
exhausted from exposure and worry. 
They said they tried to buy some gaso¬ 
line from a storekeeper on the way, 
but he declined to sell to them, although 
he had ten gallons and only used it 
sometimes for sawing wood. Another 
man, an undertaker in same neigh¬ 
borhood charged them a couple of dol¬ 
lars for helping them out of mud, -and 
was on road with team. They wanted 
him to drive them over to us, or hire 
a team, but he said no, he might need 
his team the next day, for he might 
have a funeral on his hands. They 
said they guessed he could make more 
out of them dead than alive. 
Getting a Load. —We had calculated 
to load the machine up so it could go 
back the same day or early next morn¬ 
ing, but the next morning found it 
four miles away from us. After the 
colored man (the chauffeur) had dried 
out and rested a while I took him and 
went back for the machine, while the 
rest went to haulin" holly out. They 
had to haul it about a mile to where 
we could get machine. Near where 
they had left the machine lived a col¬ 
ored man with a yoke of oxen. I 
asked him how much he’d pull me up 
the hill for. We soon bargained, and 
he helped us up the hill and also over 
to the holly. I saw it was just as well 
to keep him with us as to be getting a 
new team every time we got stuck. The 
wheels would sink on the best of the 
road four inches. With good chains 
I believe w r e could have gone over 
them, although we had only a 30-horse 
power engine. After throwing three 
wagon-loads on and one load on wagon 
we started about 5 o’clock again. After 
a number of hair’s breadth escapes from 
upsetting into ravines and ditches we 
succeeded in getting about six miles on 
way, and had taken off the ox-power 
so we could travel faster, when w r e ran 
into a place supposed to have been re¬ 
paired during the Summer. The county 
had wasted some of its money here, 
thrown up a little dirt in middle of 
road, and left ungraveled, not even 
packed down. 
The Ox and the Auto. —Until now 
when our gasoline power failed we’d 
get out by putting oxoline ahead, but 
we were getting too far away from 
home for the oxen, so they refused to 
pull as faithfully as through the day. 
After several unsuccessful trials to go 
ahead, we took and hooked the oxen 
to the rear of machine, and then they 
pulled, but one of the oxen was so much 
stronger he swung the other ox around 
so as to almost pull us in ditch. Find¬ 
ing we were only getting in the mud 
deeper, we gave up for the night. I 
have slept by many a camp-fire when 
tired of hunting at night, but this was 
the worst of all. The ground was wet 
as could be, and having sent all the 
tools by the wagon we had nothing to 
cut wood to make a fire. All we could 
get to make a fire with was an old, 
nearly decayed rail fence. We had 
even sent the blankets and robes on 
the wagon. It took the greater part of 
the night to get the ground dry enough 
to lie on. Sleep was out of the ques¬ 
tion, for it was as much as we could do 
to keep from freezing while awake. As 
soon as it got light we borrowed an 
axe and cut some poles to pry out 
with. The ox driver bought some feed 
for his oxen from a colored friend of 
his, and as near as we could calculate 
•he paid $10 per barrel for corn and 
$300 per ton for fodder. A white man 
with an ox team came along early that 
morning and offered to help us out, 
and soon after a colored man came 
along driving a fine pair of horses. He 
stopped and helped us until he had to 
leave to meet a steamboat. About 10 
o’clock that morning a clerk brought 
us 10 gallons of gasoline, having been 
sent by the owner of the truck the 
evening before. He was driving a draft 
horse and had to put up on the way the 
night before. As soon as he saw how 
we were fixed he went on to Indian 
Head and telephoned the boss. We had 
decided to give another trial as soon as 
we could get the engine warmed up to 
work, and then if we couldn’t get out 
to go for a contractor about five miles 
away; I knew he would pull us out. 
Reinforcements. —We had tried one 
yoke of oxen, then two, and finally 
hooked the pair of horses ahead of the 
oxen, but couldn't get a good pull until 
the engine helped, then they seemed to 
understand, for both yokes of oxen 
made a good pull, taking us back down 
the road to hard land. Then we put them 
ahead and went through by the hardest 
ground. Neither the ox driver nor the 
horse driver would accept pay for what 
the’- had done, but one man here want¬ 
ed to charge us for the use of an ox- 
chain to pull us out. Both the ox 
drivers went a couple of miles farther 
with us to see us up a hill. Then we 
paid the colored driver, who was about 
as anxious to go his way as we were 
ours. We had some close calls on the 
way. Where the road was hard when 
we went down was covered now in 
places with water, and one hardly 
knew which way to go through them ; 
however, we kept to the old rut as 
much as possible. In lots of places it 
was the only place we could go. We 
hung up a couple of times, 'but man¬ 
aged to get by without having to hunt 
up more ox power. We were several 
days later getting the holly on the mar¬ 
ket than we would have been, and there 
having been no snow on the ground so 
many others like us had gone so far 
for it, so the market was so over¬ 
stocked the last two days before Christ¬ 
mas. This with a snowfall on Mon¬ 
day night after everybody had got there 
with their load, compelled us to sell 
at wholesale. We came out a few dol¬ 
lars behind the game, but had it sold 
as well as last season we had over 
$150 worth. P. F. SKINNER. 
Kansas Chinch Bugs. 
They have ehinch-bug bookkeeping down 
to a fine point in Kansas. It is said that 
this insect cost Kansas farmers $ 17,644,458 
last year. Expensive live stock—that! If 
the open Winter continues there will be 
more bugs than ever next year. Prof. 
Dean of the Agriculture College says: 
“The number of bugs that went into Win¬ 
ter quarters last Fall was larger than that 
of the previous Fall, and up to the present 
time the mortality has been lower this 
Winter. It is about five per cent. The 
bugs are wintering almost entirely in the 
clump-forming grasses, especially bunch 
grass and blue-stem. The cornstalks and 
rubbish in the fields are harboring a few 
bugs, but since the mortality in these 
places is from 95 to 100 per cent, the bugs 
left are so few as to warrant no alarm. 
We have found that the Winter season is 
the time to light chinch-bugs. At this sea¬ 
son they are congregated in the grasses 
which grow along the roadsides, in the 
meadows, pastures, and waste places. And 
since it is an easy matter for each farmer 
to burn these off. it should be done just 
as soon as conditions will permit good 
burning. In the farming districts the per 
cent of grass land on the farm is small. 
Every farmer can clean up his place in a 
day's time, and the cost is practically 
nothing.” 3 
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,VWX. »"* A\\v^ 
T HE 1913 Mitchell makes three 
strong, favorable impressions on the 
man who wants to buy a car; the 
first by the way it looks; the second by 
the way it is made—the details of its con¬ 
struction and equipment; the third by the 
way it runs when he is taken out for a 
demonstration. 
All exaggerations and sensational effects are 
eliminated in the design of the Mitchell; its lines 
are those of simple elegance and utility, developed 
by our engineers along the lines of the best 
foreign cars. 
The man who examines the 1913 Mitchell care¬ 
fully will soon satisfy himself that no other car at 
anywhere near the price offers so complete a 
combination of the newest improvements devel¬ 
oped in the motor industry. All the essentials 
of the highest-priced automobile are in this car— 
the things that assure power, speed, comfort and 
convenience. 
In the case of the Mitchell, moderate 
price does not mean “moderate” work¬ 
manship or materials; only the best avail¬ 
able of both have been utilized—built 
according to the same standards that 
have made Mitchell vehicles famous for 
the past 78 years. 
All 1913 Mitchell cars have left drive and center control; 
Bosch ignition ; Rayfield carburetor ; Firestone demountable 
rims ; rain-vision windshield ; Jones speedometer ; silk mohair 
top with dust cover; Turkish upholstered cushions ; Timken 
front axle bearings; gauges on the dash to show air pressure 
and oil pressure ; gauge in gasoline tank showing amount of 
gasoline it contains ; and a portable electric lamp which also 
illuminates the instruments on the dash. 
All with T-head motor, electric self-starter, 
electric lighting system, and 36-inch wheels 
Motor 
Prices F. O. B. 
Wheel Base Racine 
7 passenger Six 60 H.P. 4j4x7 in. 144 in. $2,500 
2 or 5 passenger Six 50 H.P. 4 x6 in. 132 in. 1,850 
2 or 5 passenger Four 40 H.P. 4J4*7 in. 120 in. 1,500 
DEALERS EVERYWHERE 
Mitchell-Lewis Motor Company 
Racine, Wisconsin 
Mitchell Motor Co., of New York, 61st St. and Broadway, 
New York City, N. Y. 
