U'13. 
THE GREAT FARM PROBLEM. . 
The College Son and the Working Father. 
On page 593 you ask some one to come forward 
and qualify as “sympathetic friend” to tell the pro¬ 
gressive young agricultural college graduate what to 
do when confronted by his standpat father. J fear 
I cannot give the desired advice, but at least I can 
tell what I did under precisely similar circumstances. 
Actual experience is always better than theory in 
some respects. 
It was about 25 years ago that I graduated from 
one of the largest and strongest agricultural colleges 
of that day. My father was then farming a large 
and valuable farm, but his increasing years and in¬ 
firmities made it plain that lie could not keep it up 
very long. I was anxious to go to farming, but of 
course hadn’t a cent of capital. The rational and 
proper thing was for me to go onto the home farm, 
but I didn't go. The question was never openly dis¬ 
cussed, but the tacit understanding was doubtless in 
pretty fair agreement with the facts. Instinct is 
usually sound in these matters, and apparently my 
father and 1 saw the same difficulties ahead. If I 
went into the farm the first question which would 
have to be settled was, who should be the manager? 
Either he must remain the boss and final authority 
on all points, and I must be a preferred hired man, 
or else he must yield the management to me and re¬ 
tire from the field. I could not in self-respect accept 
the former alternative, and he evidently was not pre¬ 
pared for the latter. In all candor I must say it would 
have been a heroic thing to do, and a risky one; and 
at this date, when I have boys of my own about 
graduating from college, I cannot believe that I would 
have done differently. 
And so I was permitted to hunt a job. Perhaps 
it was unfortunate that I was so suc¬ 
cessful in establishing myself on a sal¬ 
ary that after the first few years there 
was no chance to go back to the farm. 
My father soon saw this, sold out the 
farm and retired, leaving me to be a 
college professor for the rest of my life. 
I have often reflected deeply and 
sometimes sadly on this transaction, 
which so profoundly determined my 
entire life for me. In the days when I 
left college agriculture was at a very 
low stage. I have sometimes thought 
that if the situation could have arisen 
in 1912, with agriculture booming, col¬ 
lege education established and justified, 
and I could have had the modern tech¬ 
nical training in place of the dilute 
classical course which I got in the 80’s, 
the incident would have turned out dif¬ 
ferently. Still that is only a surmise. 
The human elements are the same to¬ 
day that they were in 1890; and every 
year I have one or a dozen heart-to- 
heart talks with boys just graduating from college, 
and who stand exactly where I did 25 years ago. 
On the whole, it seems to me that, if a father 
really cares to have his boy go into farming and the 
boy really wants to do it—which is the situation in 
about 85 per cent, of the cases—it ought to be possi¬ 
ble to arrange matters. I think the father ought to 
offer the son some sort of partnership on very liberal 
terms, yet on a purely business basis. Legal papers 
should be drawn making the business position of the 
son (and of course of the father) secure. These 
should grant effectually to the son genuine and sub¬ 
stantial powers in the management. In most cases it 
would appear to be sentimentally sound for the 
father to leave open a good opportunity for the son 
to gain an eventual ownership of the whole property. 
I his may sound like rather a stiff dose for the old 
man, but it must be recognized that I who write am 
now the old man, with boys in college; that I have 
ecn through every phase of the experience and that 
I have gone over the whole heart-searching story 
every year with hundreds of students who have had 
to face the same questions. an oi.d graduate. 
PUTTING UP WIRE FENCE. 
In building wire fencing the important matter is to 
put in good end posts and brace them well. When 
building a fence recently the writer braced the end 
posts as shown in the diagram, Fig. 223. The No. 6 
galvanized wire passes around the end post and is 
looped around a large stone buried in the ground 
tour feet behind the end post, and in line with the 
tence. Instead of the brace being diagonal it may be 
icvel, when the tendency to lift the end post will be 
1 liminated. The picture. Fig. 222, shows how an 
single post was braced. On the opposite side of the 
post from the upright brace a stone was buried and 
the wire run up around the post and wrapped around 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKEK 
the brace. Another brace between posts was put in to 
hold the end post while stretching the fence. The 
fence was about 80 rods long, so two 40-rod rolls of 
wire were secured. This fencing is 47 inches high, 
made of No. 9 wire, and weighs about 625 pounds to 
each roll of 40 rods. Large Burr oak and White oak 
posts wmre set 12^2 feet apart and a staple driven over 
every wire. The staples were not driven tight, just 
barely against the wire. The oak posts will last 20 
years, perhaps, or longer, though good locust posts 
at 25 cents apiece are to be preferred, even when the 
oak posts are made on the farm at odd times. 
Professional fence builders charge 25 cents per rod 
to build wire fence, the posts and fencing to be 
on the ground and the fence row cleared. As the 
posts are usually set not closer than a rod apart, and 
one man, when the soil is moist, can dig the hole 
and set a post every five to seven minutes, one can 
make good wages when many braces and stones are 
not needed. This 47-inch fence costs about 44 cents 
per rod, and with a barb wire and the staples the 
cost outside of posts and labor is about 50 cents per 
rod; posts and labor make the total cost one dollar 
per rod. 
At the bottoms of hills, or where the fence crosses 
hollows or ravines, a large stone with wires looped 
around it must be buried, the fence drawn down and 
the ends of the wires from the stone wrapped over 
the wires of the fence as shown in Fig. 224, opposite 
the steer. This is to prevent the tension on the fence 
lifting the posts. In stretching the fence a large 
powerful stretcher is used, because it takes lots of 
power to stretch 10 No. 9 steel wires properly, but it 
should not be forgotten that a fence can be stretched 
too much. Take up all the slack and any large curves 
or bends, but stop before those little kinks or bends, 
put in the wire when it is woven, are straightened out, 
for then you have taken the “life” out of the fence 
and rendered it practically valueless. In the fence 
described above TOO posts were set, five braces placed 
and six stones buried, besides two big end posts, 
which were set feet deep. The line posts are set 
2J4 feet deep, which is ample, as there is no strain on 
them either from wind or weight of fence. 
Ohio. W. E. DUCKWALL. 
GUN CLUBS FOR PROTECTING GAME. 
A local organization known as the Williamson Rod 
and Gun Club was formed last November for the 
purpose of promoting clean field sport, and also to 
work for more just game laws. The club is com¬ 
posed largely of farmers, but also includes any 
straight, clean villager who wishes to join. This club 
will endeavor to prevent Sunday hunting, and also 
the practice of outsiders (city or country) coming in 
here in automobiles loaded with “booze” and cutting 
up farmers’ fences, shooting fowls or stock, or in any 
way damaging the farmers’ property. We think that, 
being organized and interested, we can. by the use 
of the telephone and maybe the sheriff, altogether 
prevent this sort of thing. We are affiliated with the 
New York State Forest, Fish and Game League, be¬ 
lieving that the influence of one good, strong, live 
organization on the inside will count for more than 
many kicks and howls from the outside, for the 
reason that we can speak our piece where we can be 
heard. The club has held meetings more or less 
regularly all Winter, has had some good times, and is 
getting ready to provide some trap-shooting to mem¬ 
bers at cost; not in the form of matches or prize 
work, but simply to have the traps open on certain 
regular days, and each member can go and shoot as 
much or little as he pleases. Membership is one 
dollar per year, and members are voted on before 
being admitted, for obvious reasons. Why not have 
671 
such an organization in every town where there are 
a few people who like to go out with the gun? Will 
not this be more effective than game protectors and 
strict laws, in preventing damage to property and 
conserving bird life, both game and insect destroyers? 
Every club which is affiliated with the State League 
is entitled to two delegates to the State convention. 
Why not have a large showing of farmer sportsmen 
at the next convention? Who starts the next club 
on these lines? j. a. crane. 
Wayne Co., N. Y. 
GOOD WORK BY EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 
Referring to what N. R. I. says on page 608, I 
think he takes a wrong attitude in regard to the 
experiment stations. The stations are not going 
around here trying to teach us how to grow more 
apples, but rather they are endeavoring to show us 
how to grow better apples. I for one feel that we 
owe a good deal to our experiment stations. Who, 
if not they, would have shown us about using the 
lime-sulphur as a Summer spray; about making the 
homemade lime-sulphur concentrate, and numerous 
other problems which we are in doubt about? How 
about the quality of those thousands of bushels of 
apples that went to waste in Chautauqua County? 
How many were No. 2? Were they properly sprayed, 
and were they thinned where thickly set? If they 
were grown on waterlogged land devoid of humus 
the odds were against them right from the start. 
N. R. I. says: “The crying need of the farmer is his 
just share of what his labor produces.” Perhaps an¬ 
other “crying need” of the farmers around N. R. I. 
is to find out what crops their hardpan waterlogged 
land is best adapted to. Certain it is that we have 
never seen well-grown, well-packed apples go begging 
in this vicinity. Even the culls are always salable at 
some price. In this vicinity we have 
never heard anyone belittle the work of 
the experiment station, but this particu¬ 
lar location has often been called the 
garden spot of New York State, and 
perhaps a more intelligent or prosperous 
lot of farmers it would be hard to find. 
Does the farmer receive his just share? 
No, but one way out of this is to keep 
on raising the best things we know how 
instead of the most. w. a. b. 
Seneca Co., N. Y. 
MANURE ON LEASED LAND. 
I rent a house and lot, and keep 200 
hens in houses I have erected to contain 
them. In the lease (verbal) there was 
nothing said about the manure. Now, 
after 10 months, the owner of the place 
claims the manure and forbids my dis¬ 
posing of it. It is about impossible to 
buy straw for litter, but I made an ar¬ 
rangement with a farmer to furnish 
straw, he to have the straw and the 
manure for the use of it, he to deliver the straw and 
take it away. He is now forbidden to drive on the 
place or to take away the manure. What right has 
he or I in the manure? In case I can’t let the manure 
go, can the owner of the place take it away without 
my consent? I know on farms the manure belongs 
to the farm, as it is supposed to be made from what 
grows on the farm, but I thought it might be different 
in this case. y. n. 
The general rule is that manure made by a tenant 
upon leased farm lands in the ordinary course of 
husbandry is, in absence of special agreement to the 
contrary, the property of the lessor, and belongs to 
the farm as an incident necessary for its improve¬ 
ment and cultivation, and the tenant has no right to 
remove it from the premises or apply it to any other 
use. However, manure made in livery stables, or in 
buildings unconnected with agricultural property, be¬ 
longs to the tenant, unless there be a contract to the 
contrary; and it has been held that a tenant is 
entitled to manure made from fodder grown else¬ 
where and bought by him. even where he agreed not 
to take away tlie manure. Where a landlord is 
allowed to hold the manure, the reason for the rule 
would seem to' be the fact that the manure is made 
from the produce of the farm, and to allow the 
tenant to remove it, would tend to impoverish the 
farm. But where the manure is made from produce 
obtained elsewhere, or where the lands are not 
agricultural lands, no such reason, and therefore no 
such rule, exists. In this case J. B. is not engaged 
in husbandry in the real sense nor are his lands agri¬ 
cultural lands, but merely a house and lot. He buys 
the feed for his hens off the farm and the manure is 
his as truly as was the feed before it was converted. 
The landlord has no right to prevent the manure 
from being taken away. M d. 
