662 
THE RURAb NEW-K)HKER 
the same may be done here. In that they are right. 
The reason for this being so run out now is in the 
fact that we have too little labor to work it properly. 
In Denmark the government has helped agriculture 
in many ways, as that is primarily an agricultural 
country; and the farmer gets all the returns of his 
products except the actual cost of handling. Land 
there has become so scarce and high-priced that poor 
people can hardly get farms. Labor is abundant and 
cheap. Here conditions are the reverse; land is 
cheap and labor is high. There is no trouble about 
these industrious Danes and kindred people getting 
good wages here at first, and later getting farms of 
their own. 
I was much interested in the homes of these peo¬ 
ple. There were pictures of scenes in the home land. 
The furniture was ample for their needs, but there 
is little that is not needed. When debts become less 
then luxuries may be considered. Everything was 
as neat as need be, in fact it seemed to me that 
there may have been more work bestowed than is 
absolutely necessary. The dinner at Mr. Hauberg’s 
would be called superb. It was provided by his 
sister, as he is not yet married. The sister has been 
here only a year and a half, but being a very intelli¬ 
gent girl she has a very good command of English. 
I was especially pleased with the appearances about the 
homes. I neglected to say that the buildings on the 
farms are in fairly good condition. They will answer 
for use for some years, and with a little repairing 
will do for a longer period. It would cost more to 
erect the buildings than the farm cost. 
H. H. LYON. 
PONIES BY THE HUNDREDS. 
The largest pony farm in the world reads like a 
big story, but the farm exists right here in Highland 
County, Ohio. There are 275 ponies of all ages, and 
they constitute the chief product of the farm, and 
are the only source of income. Mr. Dunlap’s land 
is in two tracts, 100 acres near Greenfield, where the 
residence, office and sales stables are located, and 
436 acres some miles away, where the ponies are 
pastured and much of the feed is raised. The ponies 
are kept under natural conditions as much as possible, 
so as to insure vigor, and besides are well fed. The 
feed consists largely of silage and Alfalfa hay when 
not on pasture, and in addition some oats are fed. 
Mr. Dunlap has had great success with Alfalfa and 
silage, and reports no bad results at all. He was 
a successful attorney before he started his pony 
business, but now he gives all his attention to the 
farm and ponies, and their sale. 
Only pure Shetland ponies are kept, and most are 
registered, though this is not important. Spotted 
ponies as well as those of solid colors are to be found 
here, but the spotted, piebald or “calico” ponies are 
most numerous because in better demand than the 
others, hence in breeding the “spots” are selected. 
Only spotted stallions are used. Shetland ponies are 
kind, gentle creatures, well suited to be playfellows 
of children, yet they are sturdy, strong, and vigorous 
of body, so are equally well suited to the needs of 
many older persons. A pony is a sort of utilitarian 
pet for the child, the possession of which carries 
responsibility so much needed in the training of 
children. Mr. Dunlap has had a very successful show¬ 
ring experience but has not shown for two seasons, 
as he finds other methods of advertising better suited 
to his needs; he wishes to reach the general public 
and not the pony raisers alone. 
Edgewood, Mr. Dunlap’s home, is a beautiful place, 
and reflects the taste of this man of many attainments. 
After all, it is the inherent qualities of the man behind 
an enterprise that make for success or failure, so the 
man is as well worth study as are his methods, build¬ 
ings or stock. Though this man retired from active 
professional life six years ago lie still seems a vigor¬ 
ous young fellow, full of energy and enthusiasm. 
Producing ability without selling ability means only 
failure usually, but when the two are combined suc¬ 
cess must come, and in this case is to be found a 
success that has made Highland County’s big pony 
farm and its owner famous. W. d. d. 
WANTED A HAND-POWER SPRAYER. 
On page 432 I read an article entitled “Value of 
Power Sprayer.” H. B. P. goes on to show how he 
did the same amount of spraying, did it better, with 
tops of trees reached with power sprayer in one day 
as he did the year before in seven days with hand 
pump. The sprayer has nothing to do with cover¬ 
ing the trees so long as you carry from 100 to 125 
pounds pressure on either power or hand machine. 
It is the man behind the nozzle, and you can do just 
as thorough work with a good hand pump as you can 
with a power outfit. I have a double-acting horizon¬ 
tal pump, and by keeping the pressure above 100 
(which I always do) I can reach any point that he 
can with his power pump; besides, with only one lead 
of hose and two nozzles I can easily put on 350 gal¬ 
lons of spray in nine to 10 hours. You can easily 
see how the correspondent mentioned, with two leads, 
and doing as much in one day with power sprayer as 
with hand sprayer in seven, would have to be spray¬ 
ing 4,900 gallons in one day, and no one pump will 
force that much spray through four nozzles. A boy 
'WHO COMES THERE? Fig. 170. 
18 years old does the pumping, and he says he almost 
goes to sleep, not having enough work to do. I 
fear the hand pump has not been given a fair chance 
by the side of the power pump, otherwise the verdict 
would have been different. For my own use on from 
4,000 to 5,000 trees, I would not want a power sprayer. 
Just this Spring my neighbor started to spray with 
his power sprayer, and the first hour he was out 
something went wrong, and while having it repaired 
he had to take his hand pump and did four days’ 
Street front. ZSOft. Shaded by heavy Maples. 
Cottonwood Trees 
O o 
Apple tree 
Cottonwood 
o 
Maple 
(small) ° 
Dwelling 
$ 
°X 
OC/> 
General slope toward North. 
PLAN OF GROUNDS. Fig. 17 
spraying with it. On anything under 5,000 trees 
(peach) give me a good double-acting hand pump. 
Maryland. D. v. pike. 
R. N.-Y.—Are there many of those 18-year boys at 
large? They are rare birds in our country. The 
average man gets very tired of pumping after the 
second tank has been blown out. What H. B. P. 
meant was that one good spraying day with his power 
sprayer enabled him to finish at one job, while in for¬ 
mer years weather conditions may have spread the 
OYSTERS GROWING ON AN IRON HOOP. Fig. 178. 
work over a week. Again, our friend is spraying- 
peach trees, while H. B. P. has apples—mostly large 
trees. When it comes to putting on poison during 
our uncertain weather the power pump is a great 
help. This poison must sometimes all go on inside 
of two days to do any good, as rain or high wind 
may have prevented spraying for a week. Then the 
power sprayer, with its big tank and rapid work, may 
save the crop. If Mr. Pike had 5,000 apple trees in 
bloom with the usual chances for wind and rain he 
could hardly expect to kill the worms with his hand 
outfit. 
April ID, 
A CASE OF “LAWN EXHAUSTION.” 
What can I do about my lawu, a diagram of which 
appears at Fig. 177? Practically all of it is covered with 
a thick moss, consequently very little grass, also has 
over much of it a mat of a vine callod locally "Creeping 
Charlie"; there are also plantains and other weeds. Soil 
has gravelly surface, clay subsoil, northern exposure, good 
drainage. Would an application of lime, either ground 
limestone or some other form, be of any value, and if so, 
in what quantity? Is there any material that could be 
applied in a spray, to kill the weeds without injuring the 
grass? I cannot have the ground plowed up, cultivated and 
reseeded. J. g. m. 
Montgomery, N. Y. 
Your trouble is what is generally termed lawn 
exhaustion and is a condition that makes it most 
difficult of renewal without plowing it up and mak¬ 
ing it over anew, but where this is not practicable 
or very difficult to accomplish, other means must be 
resorted to to secure the re-establishment of the 
grass and the extermination of weeds, etc. The 
plant referred to as Creeping Charlie is Lysimachia 
NMHnr' - 
nummularia (loosestrife) ; it is a hardy herbaceous 
perennial,, of easy culture and will grow in almost 
any kind of soil and in any situation. It no doubt 
was originally planted on your lawn as it is quite 
frequently used to cover the ground in densely 
shaded spots where grass will not thrive. It quickly 
forms a dense carpet and is much admired by many 
people. It spreads rapidly and when it invades the 
lawn where • grass will grow it should be treated 
the same as any weed and means employed to eradi¬ 
cate it. This is not always an easy task but one that 
requires almost always constant vigilance and care 
to keep it within bounds. The narrow-leaved plantain 
is what is commonly known as buckhorn; this is 
probably one of the most difficult of all weeds that 
infest lawns to eradicate. The weather is never 
too hot nor too dry to prevent its growing and ripen¬ 
ing of seed from June until frost. The only way to 
bring it under control is by persistently pulling it 
up by the root year after year until there is not 
another seed left to come up. A single plant if al¬ 
lowed to grow will soon start a forest of them and 
they in turn will very soon ripen enough seed to 
pollute the whole place. The moss spoken of is a 
natural growth and is always present where the 
shade is dense and inclined to be wet. Air-slaked 
lime applied to the surface at the rate of one ton 
to the acre, or Canada hard-wood ashes applied to 
the surface at the rate of 3J4 to four tons to the 
acre are considered very beneficial and will in most 
cases prevent the growth of moss. 
As a preliminary to the restoration of this lawn I 
would recommend the application of Canada hard¬ 
wood ashes at the rate of 3j4 to four tons to the 
acre, applied broadcast to the surface this Spring, 
spreading it as evenly as possible, and that every 
effort be made during this season to eradicate all 
weeds. At the beginning of Winter give the lawn 
a good mulch of partially decomposed strawy manure. 
Next March rake all the rough material off and as 
soon as Spring is fairly opened, run over the lawn 
with a spiked-tooth harrow, setting it with the levers 
so the teeth will slant backwards somewhat. This 
will prevent tearing up chunks or large pieces of 
the old sod, but will permit the harrow to scratch 
and fine the surface and thus prepare a good seed 
bed. A liberal top-dressing composed of good loam 
three-fourths, and sheep manure or bone meal one- 
fourth, should be applied and leveled and smoothed 
with the rake; seed sown at the rate of not less 
than three bushels to the acre, raked in lightly and 
rolled with a hgnd roller. The seed used should 
be made up of a mixture of grasses that do well 
under trees and in other shaded places. Such mix¬ 
tures can be purchased from any reliable seed house. 
To keep a lawn in the best condition it should have 
a liberal application of some kind of suitable manure 
every year. Lawn grasses are like most other grow¬ 
ing things, they will in time exhaust the soil, and 
unless they are fed they will grow weaker and 
thinner year by year until finally weeds will take 
possession and destroy the grasses or so mar its 
beauty that it will become an eyesore rather than 
a thing pleasing to look upon. 
There are few subjects relating to grasses of 
such general interest as lawns. There is nothing more 
attractive nor beautiful than a well-kept lawn. No 
matter how small the dooryard may be, if covered 
with smooth green turf, it instantly attracts the at¬ 
tention and excites the admiration of all who pass 
that way. The making of a good lawn is a task 
that requires knowledge and good judgment, and 
the inexperienced rarely succeed in getting entirely 
satisfactory results. There are so many -things to 
be considered in connection with die making and 
care of lawns it is always a difficult matter to make 
the average man understand them. A good lawn 
cannot be made in a season and the highest excellence 
sought comes only through intelligent care for a 
period of years. It is true a green surface may be 
obtained within a few months, but a smooth, soft 
velvety turf, which is a delight to the eye and a 
pleasure to walk on. comes only with years of 
patient and painstaking care. K - 
