33 8 
piece sufficiently large to supply the plant until the 
sprout is above ground with leaves unfolded so that 
it can grow on its own account and make use of the 
nourishment in the soil. 
PLANTING.—The seed is planted with a planter 
in rows 33 inches apart and in hills 10 inches apart- 
They are planted this close because for seed purposes 
a rather small or medium-sized potato is desired. A 
planter should have in mind just about what he wants 
to produce for his market and lay his plans accord¬ 
ingly. When the one or two-eyed seed pieces are 
planted on fairly moist soil, liberally fertilized, given 
the best of tillage, and sprayed thoroughly, we may 
expect in an average season to have five or six 
medium-sized potatoes to the hill. Should a severe 
drought occur the tubers would probably be a little 
small, but under average conditions a fine crop of the 
right size for seed may be expected. If one is grow¬ 
ing table stock for a market which requires large 
potatoes, or if the soil is poor or one that would be 
likely to be injured greatly by drought the seed pieces 
should be spaced farther apart in the row. h- w. c. 
FUTURE OF THE SMALL FARMER, 
I am told there Is a great future for farming in this 
country, but not much of a future for the small farmer. 
Is this true? Are the farms also going into the hands of 
"big business,” and are the farmers to become employees? 
Is the final outcome of public agitation and public educa¬ 
tion in agriculture to be the absorption of the farms into 
the hands of a few? Is there to be a farm trust? There 
are indications pointing that way, and it may be well to 
consider whether the struggle for increased efficiency by 
the use of large amounts of capital is to be an unmixed 
blessing, when it has been successful. 
“But a bold peasantry, their country’s pride, 
When once destroyed can never be supplied.” 
Albany, N. Y. a. c. h. 
This is a good thing to consider. Such a thing as 
a ‘‘farm trust” would be the worst thing that could 
happen to America. The Republic cannot live if the 
small freeholder of land is to be crowded out or left 
with an unprofitable business. It should be the foun¬ 
dation aim of our agricultural education to preserve 
the independence and prosperity of the smaller 
farmer. Unless this is done the foundation of our 
form of government will crumble. On page 157 of 
our little book, “The Child,” this idea is developed: 
“They (the farmers) must have a fairer share of what 
they produce, and something more of the business of manu¬ 
facturing or preparing what they grow, or the drift will be 
more and more into the towns and the cities. That means 
lower values for farm lands and a lower standard of liv¬ 
ing. or else going in debt for a better one, and in the end 
serfs or slaves, one or the other. In the end the individual 
farmer will find that he cannot compete with the big 
combinations of capital when they turn their attention to 
producing food. You and I can remember when the hills 
were full of little factories, and little shops at every 
water power. They have all been taken away, absorbed 
by the great manufacturers. In like manner will come the 
tendency for great corporations and for the great railroad 
companies to take up land and produce food on a large 
and cold-blooded plan. By cold-blooded I mean that farm¬ 
ing will be done by such people with as little regard for 
sentiment and home feeling, as cloth is now produced in 
our great factories. The only way that I see for our 
farmers to stand up against this in the future is for them 
to form organizations in which they can work together 
and-still preserve their manhood and individual character. 
I need not tell you what it will mean for the children 
now growing up on the farms, should the time come when 
by means of the lower classes of foreign labor the rail¬ 
roads and great corporations are able to produce food 
which our cities will call for. 
It will not be denied that thus far the benefits of 
agricultural science have gone in large measure to 
the classes known as “the quick and the strong”— 
those who have the capital and the power to develop 
large enterprises and the keen minds to utilize at 
once the discoveries of science. 
Most thoughtful men will now agree that the im¬ 
mense development of manufacturing has not been 
"an unmixed blessing.” This development was 
brought about by granting special privileges to manu¬ 
facturers, and by the importation of cheap foreign 
labor. This displaced native labor, ruined the smaller 
factories which as boys we remember to have seen 
in the country towns, concentrated money in the 
large cities, depopulated the country districts by pull¬ 
ing the boys and girls away, and took political power 
out of the hands of the people. Where is the man 
of 45 today who does not know that this country 
would be stronger and better off to-day if this de¬ 
velopment of manufacturing had been left to make 
a natural growth—fairly scattered throughout the 
country ? 
The greatest problem this nation now has to face 
is that of providing for the men and women who are 
crowded out of opportunity by our industrial sys¬ 
tem. It is estimated that there are more than 9,000,- 
000 people in this country more or less dependent on 
charity for their living. The land is the great re¬ 
source and hope for the next generation—small areas 
of land on which a man can make an independent 
living. England has been forced, as a matter of na¬ 
tional preservation, to begin to break up the “land 
trust” of the aristocracy and make land free r . The 
man with a small farm can always do things which 
the large commercial land owner cannot do—for the 
smaller man may produce what ranks with hand-made 
goods in manufacturing. Every energy and power of 
THE RURAb NEW-YORKER 
government should be extended toward giving the 
small freeholder a fair opportunity to make a living 
and maintain a good home on an average sized farm. 
That is not “class legislation,” for it benefits all 
classes. While our agricultural colleges confine them¬ 
selves to teaching the “two blades of grass” theory, 
they are in danger of promoting the very thing which 
our agriculture least needs at this time. We need 
positive, strong, open defense of the smaller farmer 
as a citizen and as a man, as well as a producer. 
VALUE OF SCALES ON THE FARM. 
Scales are an absolute necessity on any well- 
managed farm in order to secure the greatest returns 
for the products sold therefrom. This I have found 
to be true from my own experience of several years 
in the use of scales, and I am safe in stating that the 
LANKFORD APPLE, BELLFLOWER, 
W itli physiological fruit spot. With fungus fruit spot. 
farmer who has none will make a very profitable 
investment in the purchase of a small platform scale 
for his own use to ascertain the correct weight of 
his stock, hay, grain, potatoes, etc., when he desires 
to sell or buy such. The day of guessing on farm 
deals has passed. We must remember that what we 
produce and sell from our farms is our whole stock 
in trade. We must have the same means of protect¬ 
ing ourselves that the grocer, the liveryman or the 
hardware man has if we are to succeed. The grocer 
does not guess at the number of pounds of sugar he 
LANKFORD, MANN, 
With physiological fruit spot. With fungus fruit spot. 
sells us, and he does the weighing himself. The hard¬ 
ware man sells us wire nails, etc., by weight. If we 
happen to be out of hay and drive up to the liveryman 
or feed store and buy a few bales we are charged 
for so many pounds. We must have scales in our 
own dealings with others in our sales of cattle, hogs, 
grain, potatoes, etc., otherwise the chances are in 
favor of our being the loser in the great majority of 
cases. We need them to verify weights on articles we 
buy, such as seeds,’ coal, feed, live stock, etc. We 
need them in otir own operations. We desire to 
DELICIOUS APPLE FROM IOWA, Fig. 113, 
know the amount of hay and other food we are feed¬ 
ing to our live stock. It is important to know of the 
advancement in weight in stock being fattened, to 
know which is the more profitable of the different 
kinds of grain, potatoes, etc., we are raising on the 
farm. There is hardly a day in the year that my 
scales do not serve some useful purpose, and I feel 
that I could not run my farm successfully without 
them. 
March 8, 
A most excellent platform scale that will weigh 
from four to six tons can be purchased for from 
$75 to $100. A little figuring will show that it is not 
only a good investment, but that such a scale will 
actually pay for itself in one or two years, to say 
nothing of the convenience and satisfaction of having 
it on the farm always ready for use. But it is not 
on outside matters only that scales are useful. In 
the kitchen a pair of small hand scales serves a most 
useful purpose in determining a certain weight of 
small articles, such as ingredients to be used in cook¬ 
ing, etc. We sell several pounds of butter each week, 
and could not guarantee full weight to our customers 
were it not for the use of a pair of those small hand 
scales. They also fill an important place in ascer¬ 
taining a certain number of pounds of clover, Alfalfa 
and grass seed to sow to the acre. There are a great 
many little things to be weighed on the farm, and a 
pair of these small scales comes into use almost every 
day. I am of the opinion that many farmers lose 
enough in the run of a few years to pay for a large 
and small scale by selling their produce by measure 
or by guessing it off. Business thus transacted is one 
reason why some farmers do not get along in the 
world as they would like. If we are to hold our own 
and get what is due us we must do business in a 
businesslike way. wm. hardy. 
Illinois. 
GET BUSY WITH ALBANY. 
Ten agricultural bills are now before the Legis¬ 
lature. Every one is a bill of State-wide interest and 
importance. The exact number of them which will 
become laws is in exact relation to the amount of 
work the farmers will do for them. The farmers 
in the Assembly are not all of one party; their local 
interests are diverse on many bills, and as a unit 
they are relatively small. The folks back home send 
a man down to Albany, wish him God-speed, then 
promptly forget him, except to criticise the general 
results of the legislative action on general and local 
measures. This session has shown this exact state of 
affairs. The commission men bill, known as the 
Roosevelt-Cole Bill, is bitterly opposed by men who 
know exactly what they don’t want, and how to get 
it. As a unit they, from one source, inflict their 
views on each member’s attention—as one man with 
a megaphone they speak to each man. The friends 
of all strictly agricultural bills have no megaphone. 
They feel that their whole duty was performed in 
November at the polls, and until next election noth¬ 
ing much matters. 
There are 375,000 people engaged in agriculture in 
this State, and as a political influence they are less 
powerful than, let us say, 3,000 business men; and 
this is so for the very simple reason that they do 
not, and in many cases cannot, express their views 
and opinions. The attention they get from the Legis¬ 
lature is, to say the least, paternalistic and patroniz¬ 
ing. The practical politics at Albany does not appeal 
to the farmers and many of them imagine that a lofty 
purpose and a moral stand should alone get immediate 
attention for their interests; and while it is perfectly 
true that this moral stand and lofty purpose no doubt 
kills many vicious bills, its principle effect is negative; 
it does not get constructive new laws on the books 
for the reason that it overlooks the means of prac¬ 
tical politics by which nearly all laws are obtained. 
The commission men’s bill, the farm bureau bill, 
the bill to license the sale of oleo and several others 
are in immediate need of practical assistance, and 
before the session is over some of these agricultural 
bills will have been quietly placed in the legislative 
graveyard, and almost entirely because our folks for¬ 
get them or trust to some special providence which 
is not usually to be found about any State’s capitol. 
Nearly every other class and interest have avenues 
of information on all legislation and means to assist 
or hinder it. Each class and interest, though they 
do not always get what they want, are in a position 
to make at least some favorable compromise. If co¬ 
operation among farmers is any more than an empty 
term this fact has never been clearly established in 
the minds of men at Albany. There are now before 
the Legislature three bills seeking to make co-opera¬ 
tion easy in the formation of companies, banks, etc., 
and they are in need of some practical demonstration 
of the spirit of co-operation from the farmers. What 
is the way to show it? What shall the farmer do, 
and how shall he do it? The mails are open, and no 
man is so big nor so lofty who does not respect let¬ 
ters sent to him. The name and address of the 
Governor and the leaders of both houses at Albany 
is well known, and these men and every member of 
the Legislature gets his mail with great regularity— 
there you are. Are you helping with your pen and 
pencil, practically and to the best effect, for the laws 
you want and need? If not, get busy, on the spot. 
