81 C 
responds quickly to culture, and the big growth of 
weeds which has been plowed under gives up its 
plant food rapidly. This, however, is another story 
which should be told earlier in the season. The 
point now is that the best fruit growers agree that 
they should fertilize early, give thorough culture up 
to the middle of Summer, start an a'ctive growth and 
then let the land produce a humus crop of some 
sort. Personally we should prefer to cut that great 
growth of weeds down once or twice through the 
Summer, aud let it remain as a mulch on top of the 
soil. We also think that a living crop plowed into 
the ground in the Spring is a sort of tonic or active 
principle for the soil, but what is the use of telling 
a man like Mr. Repp how to improve his methods 
when he is already reaching a full measure of 
success? 
CONSERVATIVE FATHER AND PROGRES¬ 
SIVE SON. 
f About 50 letters were received^ as discussion of the 
family problem started on page 593. Here are three 
of them covering different sides of the question. We 
hope to give every side and angle of this question a 
fair hearing.] 
Hard Sense from a Veteran. 
I have read and re-read the article on page 593 
under heading “The Conservative Father and His 
Progressive Son,” and as my sympathies are always 
with the young man who is anxious to do something, 
and as I am old enough to qualify as a “conservative 
father,” I am moved to “say a few words on this 
occasion.” 
It is a laudable ambition in any young farmer 
to desire the best things in his business and the 
largest possible legitimate profits from his under¬ 
takings, and he is to be commended and congratu¬ 
lated if he “sees visions and dreams,” for it is only 
he whose ambitions color his “sleeping thoughts” 
who in his waking hours will be impelled along the 
way of persistent endeavor to work out the difficult 
problems that will confront him at every stroke of 
the clock marking the divisions of working time. 
If I were the young man of your article I would 
stick to the “conservative father's” farm, provided 
that I could rent it on a satisfactory basis. Surely 
on so large a farm there must be sufficient available 
land to furnish the foundation for a dairy. Let him 
cultivate the best of the fields and turn the rest to 
pasture; thus securing, for a few years at least, 
cheap Summer keeping for his stock. For cows 
giving milk the pasture feed can be supplemented by 
a proper grain ration, while for growing stock and 
dry cows the grass will be all that is necessary. 
Evidently, less capital will be required to do this 
than would be necessary to buy and equip a 40-acre 
farm for the same purpose, and hence a lower inter¬ 
est charge to be met in the years of development of 
the undertaking. In regard to starting a purebred 
herd of Jerseys the young man’s idea is commend¬ 
able. Let him, also, start with purebred hogs and 
poultry. But when he talks about buying stock of 
“the highest producing strain of Jerseys in the 
land” he is up against the problem of a tremen¬ 
dously large initial investment, and cannot hoi>e or 
expect to receive anything like a profitable return 
on the same for several years. Only breeders with 
long years of experience and a wide reputation as 
producers of the most desirable stock can secure 
patronage to high service priced sires or get the 
$5,000 or $10,000 for individual members of their 
herds. Let the young man content himself with a 
few good animals of a desirable type of cattle, and 
patiently work out a breeding plan and selling plan, 
enlarging and improving year by year until his am¬ 
bition is realized. 
If I were a young man with the ideas of our 
young man, I would avoid debt as far as possible, 
and also I would get rid of all philanthropic senti¬ 
ments. Don’t hope or attempt to set any examples 
for the neighbors. Old farmers like myself are 
doing a lot of reading and thinking and planning, all 
with the avowed purpose of getting more of the 
“100-cent dollar” than we have been getting, and 
meanwhile we are holding on to the “35-cent dollar” 
already secured, and while so occupied we have had 
time to observe the “antics” of the young men who 
were going to “show us.” Just now we are watching 
the “funeral’’ of one of the “progressive sons,” and 
several of us neighbors have contributed, some quite 
handsomely, to the “obsequies.” It is all right to 
‘‘begin where father left off” provided that he left 
off at zero, but it is unfortunate for a young man to 
jbe handicapped with inherited property and ambi¬ 
tions that are not seasoned with a little of the con¬ 
servatism that made the gain of that property by 
the father possible. 
No longer ago than yesterday I compromised a 
jflebt of 19 years’ standing, with a young man who 
Came into possession of a good farm twenty-odd 
years ago, by sacrificing a little more than the in- 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
terest for almost 20 years. I do not believe it pos¬ 
sible for any young man to work out successfully 
the scheme outlined by our young man without 
sufficient capital to begin with. One of my near neigh¬ 
bors, a young man. started farming on a good farm 
with but little capital, less than three years ago, 
and last January filed a petition in bankruptcy in 
which his debts were shown to be $20,000. and this 
week a five per cent dividend has been paid, and 
that, I am assured, is about all his creditors will 
ever get. That young man worked hard enough, was 
temperate, and so forth, but he got in wrong in the 
beginning, and came out just where the “conserva¬ 
tive father” could have told- him he would. 
Saratoga Co., N. Y. h. s. d. 
A “ Progressive Son” Talks Up. 
In reading of the conservative father and the pro¬ 
gressive son I was keenly interested, for I am an¬ 
other progressive, running another man’s farm be¬ 
cause the aforesaid father is too conservative, and 
light here lies the keynote of the deserted father in 
his old age. In the last few years I have seen farms 
north, south and west, and always or at least nine 
out of 10 cases the boy who wants to do as this 
man’s son does is met with the old farm, the old tools, 
scrub stock and the inflexible old gentleman. I know 
right now of a man who is trying to run a 400-acre 
farm on the hard and fast lines of the last century 
with 20 head of scrub cows, a scrubbier bull, three 
horses and a few chickens. His son, a young mar- 
MARC W. COLE. Fig. 2S5. 
ried man. full of enthusiasm, ran this farm for 15 
months, boarded one or two men and worked early 
and late. Father paid all the bills, but forgot to 
give the boy any money, made fun of his honest 
efforts among the barroom gentry, and antagonized 
him until the boy got out. To-day the father is 
paying two married farmers $35 each and living 
for a family of 10, selling his milk to the milk sta¬ 
tion for a pittance, pays out every month four times 
the income of the farm, and has failed to settle with 
the boy. The boy is superintendent on a farm of 
a wealthy business man; tests and weighs the milk, 
oversees the production of high-grade butter, has 
whipped the old orchards into magnificent bearing, 
breeds purebred Jersey calves and I’ercheron colts, 
White Plymouth Rock aud Berkshire hogs; runs a 
six-acre garden and a series of hotbeds and employs 
from six to 10 men. In a few years he is going 
to carry out the plans the progressive has outlined 
in this R. N.-Y. It is practical if you can get the 
money to start with. If a millionaire’s farm can 
pay a profit why not a poor man’s if he can secure 
credit? It means work, and you must know how 
yourself at every turn of the game, and you must 
back this knowledge with enthusiasm and unbound¬ 
ed hope in your own power of making ground pro¬ 
duce. If I could have but one line in your paper to 
the fathers I would print in bold face “Father, Back 
Up Your Boy.” You didn’t ask advice for the 
father, but if father would do his part, why the 
need of the boy’s letter to you? 
PUOGKESSIVE SOX. 
Father and Son. 
The problem of the conservative father and pro¬ 
gressive son is a very common one. Conservatism 
may be ignorance rather than good sense, and in 
many eases I believe it is plain stubbornness. Pro¬ 
gressiveness is generally little more than enthusiasm, 
aud enthusiasm about something untried at that. 
The man who steadily improves his conditions, mak¬ 
ing sure of a good foundation under what he does, is 
the true progressive. I would suggest to that con- 
July 5, 
servative father that he get that boy started to 
dairying on that run-down farm right away and help 
him with the fences, drains and Alfalfa. Put up a 
silo aud a cow stable till you can do more. To the 
progressive son I suggest that he start his dairy on 
his father's farm. The large acreage is an advan¬ 
tage; no doubt there are good fields and patches 
for silage corn and Alfalfa, while the remainder can 
be used as permanent pasture and slowly built up. 
Seriously, do you believe that a few months in col¬ 
lege justifies you in revolutionizing your farming? 
Forget about demonstrating anything to your neigh¬ 
bors, and don’t put on any airs, or they will rightly 
call you a “college” farmer in derision. Do not 
expect more than regular rates for service fees for 
purebred sires from your neighbors. Your income 
will be from cream aud pigs largely, so do not. bother 
with too many side issues. Try to meet your father 
half way, and to see the matter from his standpoint. 
Really, what assurance has he that you will make 
a success if you make these changes? It seems to 
me that you ought to have made enough of a suc¬ 
cess on the old farm to interest you and to lead you 
on. Don’t you feel that your real mission and the 
true mission of your college training is to conquer 
the hills and gullies and poor fences and to give 
you courage to try? 
Then you will be glad of the acreage of the old 
farm; with the lowlands drained and in corn and 
Alfalfa, the hills in rich, green pasture and well 
fenced, and the buildings modern and convenient, 
not to mention the dairy herd that has helped to pay 
for it all, nor the pigs. Do not run from this run¬ 
down farm in a panic, but attack the problems one 
at a time, and you will find them no trouble to con¬ 
quer, and you will have great pleasure in solving 
them. It would seem that you are giving up your 
birthright for the privilege of going into debt for 
$10,000 or $12,000 for a mess of pottage, just be¬ 
cause you think that you can make over a 40-acre 
farm to suit the ideas you acquired at college, more 
easily than you can father’s run-down acres. In 
short, you want ideal conditions under which to 
start your life work, losing sight of the fact that 
success depends more upon you than upon the con¬ 
ditions under which you operate. 
Highland Co., O. w. e. duck wall. 
CLEANING UP AFTER GLANDERS. 
I had two horses killed for glanders. How long will 
it be before the other horse will be strictly safe so there 
will be no danger of his having' contracted the disease? 
How long after the last exposure has a horse ever 
contracted glanders? What should be done to cleanse 
the barn aud how long should the barn be left vacant 
before it would be safe to use? E. russ. 
Oregon. 
These are matters that should be determined by 
the State authorities under whose supervision the 
horses were killed. One has to comply with State 
law in dealing with this disease. The exposed horses 
should be examined by a graduate veterinarian once 
a month until known to be free from the disease, 
and he may also test them with mallein if he cannot 
otherwise determine the presence or absence of the 
disease. If the stable has not been disinfected and 
whitewashed the horses may contract the disease at 
any time and no definite time can be predicted. 
Every loose thing in the stable should be removed 
and burned; then cleanse perfectly and soak every¬ 
thing with a 1-500 solution of corrosive sublimate 
and then whitewash with fresh-made lime wash to 
which has been added one pound of chloride of 
lime per three gallons of wash. a. s. a. 
A MANURE PIT WITH HOUSE WASTE. 
Will manure sour if put in a cement-lined manure 
cellar and wet down with water from the kitchen, bath¬ 
room or hose? Will it burn in such a bin? Drains 
from the stable and cow barn will be turned into it, 
and the liquid used as fast as obtained. Should it have 
a tight cover over it? k. m. p. 
No. Manure will not “sour” or burn if kept moist 
or well tramped down. Where manure is left loose 
and dry the air works into it, and after rain, fer¬ 
mentation will start rapidly, and we have burnt or 
“firefanged” manure. This is often seen in horse 
manure piles as white or mouldy-looking masses. 
Where the pile is packed or tramped down hard the 
air cannot work in so freely, and this “firefanging” 
will not go on so rapidly. Water soaked through 
the manure acts in somewhat the same way by pre¬ 
venting air from working in. A cement-lined cis¬ 
tern or pit will hold the drain waters and the ma¬ 
nure will absorb them. Thus there will be less 
fermenting aud the plant food in the drain waters 
will be saved. Such a pit should be kept covered. 
It is not unlike a manure factory in which the raw 
material is softened and made over into finer and 
more available plant food. If in connection with 
this pit you can use a mixture of half and half acid 
phosphate and kainit in the manure back of the 
stock you will have a fine mixture‘for any crop. 
