8MO 
time field is sprayed. The following is a five-year 
potato spraying record on is acres: 
Gallons 
Average Bordeaux 
Potato 
Net 
Crop 
yield 
used 
Cost per 
increase 
profit 
Tear. 
yield. 
Tier acre, per acre. 
acre. 
bus. & price. 
per acre 
1901! 
7,510 
417 
1,011 
$11.93 
135 x .40 
$42.07 
1907 
5,425 
301 
1,314 
14.33 
93 y 2 x .50 
32.42 
1908 
4,200 
233 
1,426 
13.00 
103 x .60 
48.,SO 
1909 
4.000 
255 
1,023% 
9.67 
59% x .50 
20.08 
1912 
6,160 
385 
1,100 
10.50 
90 x .60 
43.50 
Work and record for 1910 and 1911 is unreliable. 
Average potato yield for five years is 318 1-5 bushels. 
Average gallons of Bordeaux used per acre was 
1,174.9, cost per acre of Bordeaux is $11.88 and an 
average net profit per acre, after deducting all ex¬ 
pense of $37.37 for years given. t. e. martin. 
LOOKING AFTER LEGISLATION. 
In the article “Colleges That Can Lead” and the 
accompanying editorial I am sure that The It. N.-Y. 
is taking up a live subject, and I want to add to 
what has already been said, that the farmer is not 
the only person interested in this line of research 
and co-operation. We certainly need to have a 
strong move made in the line of bringing all whole¬ 
some people into line in the matter of legislation. 
I am sure that even President Wilson would not 
object to a lobby of this sort, one that is open and 
aboveboard, and is at work for legislation that is 
intelligent and seeks to benefit the great mass of 
citizens, whether it is along agricultural lines 
merely or includes them in a still wider field. It is 
the secret lobby that does the harm. 
The difficulty with us to-day is that our legislators 
do not represent the people. They are either work¬ 
ing for their own individual interests or they are 
under control of a boss, who gets what he wants out 
of them and then in return seeks to shield them 
from the wrath of the voters by securing their re¬ 
turn to the legislature in spite of the efforts of the 
voters. There is at the same time a large amount 
of worthless legislation or worse that is taking up 
the time of the governing bodies of the country, leg¬ 
islation that forbids the wearing of hatpins or regu¬ 
lates the open hours in barber shops. A live censor¬ 
ship from any intelligent outside body would be very 
valuable along this line also. 
The Association of Life Insurance Presidents is 
doing this very work now. Under the direction of 
Robert Lynn Cox, who took up the work almost 
entirely after the death of Grover Cleveland, the 
first president, I believe, of the body, it is now re¬ 
ported that this year 2,109 measures in 42 legisla¬ 
tures have been examined by that body and work 
has been done looking toward the weeding out of 
pernicious or doubtful features in these proposed 
laws. 
In an address during the commencement at Cor¬ 
nell University this year ex-President Andrew D. 
White, than whom few more far-seeing educators 
exist, strongly advocated the establishment of a pro¬ 
fessorship of comparative legislation, by which all 
bills of a general character should be examined and 
passed upon, not only in one legislature, but in as 
many as possible the country over. That President 
White favors agriculture in a very marked way is 
evident from another address delivered by him on 
the same day, in which he preached the back-to-the- 
farm doctrine in a most positive way, giving a long 
list of reasons why it is the proper movement, and 
showing why it is an assured movement in the near 
future. Let us help the farm by all such under¬ 
takings as is proposed, whether in city clubs, col¬ 
lege chairs or in any other way that seems feasible. 
J. w. c. 
K. N.-Y.—Well, then, why not begin by advocating 
direct nominations? That is the most sensible way 
of bringing the legislature into the hands of the 
people. As for “hatpin” legislation the writer has 
come very near having his eyes put out by long hat¬ 
pins on the heads of careless women and girls. That 
life insurance association looked after its own inter¬ 
ests as we want farmers to do. And never forget 
that there are many sides to this back-to-tlie-land 
problem. 
SULKY PLOW FOR COVER CROPS. 
I note reference on page 750, to turning under 
rye, and call attention to the ease with which this 
can he done with a sulky plow. Man, woman or 
boy ean handle it in this way, as well as an expert 
with a walking plow, or often far better. Where 
the field is of considerable size and one wishes to 
plow in lands, the first move is to cut a swath 
through where the back furrow comes, so that a 
clean start may be made. Of course this would upt 
be necessary in ordinary rough work, but a piece to 
be fitted for Alfalfa later where repeatedly worked 
with such a tool as the Spring-tooth the ridge and 
thinner covering of the rye at that point, would be 
likely to make trouble. The rye thus cut can be laid 
''nI'E-IK kukal new-vokker 
in the furrows or used as a mulch for the garden. 
Where the rye is sown close to a fence, a wider 
space is needed for turning than would sometimes 
be needed with walking plow, and the headlands 
should also be cut and cleared, the portions at which 
the furrows are finished at the end needs to he 
wider, as the tall rye in being bent over will not 
cover, but stick out beyond the plow stops. Where 
the plow starts in one can work close, and it is not 
necessary to cut such a wide headland. The dead 
furrows also will give a lot of bother in cleaning 
up and leveling down without cutting the last few 
feet before plowing and placing the rye in the fur¬ 
rows; then only the stubble is to be contended with 
in fitting the land in the dead furrow, instead of 
the long six or seven-foot straw that will not be 
easily handled with a spring-tooth drag or harrow. 
The jointer and the team and axle of the sulky 
plow bend the rye down and turn under clean, ex¬ 
cepting an occasional place where the rye and some 
soil crumble or topple from the land across the 
furrow. Always go the same way in plowing rye 
under, using either one or the other of the plows 
on the reversible sulky continuously, as where rye 
is heavy and tall, attempt to work in both direc¬ 
tions soon makes a hopelessly tangled mass. No 
chain is needed on big rye. We used a chain on 
the small rye plowed under when heading out. 
Summer plowing is often tough work on the team, 
and we find it much easier to cut the rye when in 
bloom or as soon after as we can. Leaving it on the 
ground, making a nice mulch, induces extra growth 
of clover, and then by Spring the rye straw is no 
longer tough, handles easier and decays without any 
souring of the land; besides the added protection to 
the young growth gives a much larger amount to 
turn under. Of course with plenty of power to turn 
it under in the Summer it would give opportunity 
for growing another crop to plow under, but for 
one with already too much for the horse power on 
the farm, it is easy to make the excuse that “it is 
too hot and ground too hard, so we will not plow 
it under this time,” and so the skinning process 
continues instead of making a good substantial de¬ 
posit in Mother Nature’s bank, the strongest and 
best bank that a farmer can patronize, and where 
one is sure of good rate of interest on all dei>osits. 
When one overdraws his account in that bank his 
account is marked in “red” just as sure as in ordi¬ 
nary banking, and the thousands of acres red with 
sorrel the past few weeks have been living adver¬ 
tisements to the fact that the owners or their pre¬ 
decessors have overdrawn their accounts, regardless 
of the fact that they may be riding in automobiles 
and putting money into wildcat or blue-sky invest¬ 
ments. I. C. R. 
New Y'ork. _ 
THE DOINGS OF A PROXY FRUITGROWER. 
[.There are many readers who will be interested in 
the following record of a man with a city job who 
hopes to develop an orchard. This man has some low- 
priced land in Clare Co., Mich., but like many others 
he is not yet ready to live on it. So he took a month 
off to put in an orchard. lie hopes this orchard will 
grow along into fruiting so that some time in the future 
he may have a profitable piece of property.] 
I had planned early on going to Michigan, but did 
not finally decide to go till April 22, when I ordered 
000 apple trees from Missouri 'to be sent by freight 
to Michigan, or by express if they could not start 
the trees at once. The trees did not start till April 
28, so the firm sent them by express. They reached 
Harrison May 1, two days before I left the city. 
Express eharges were $18 on 720 pounds, which was 
reduced to $10.20 by a search of rate sheets. I was 
glad to pay the extra $13 (freight would have been 
$3), for the warm weather started the leaves on 
the young trees considerably. However, they ar¬ 
rived in fine condition and were heeled in imme¬ 
diately on my arrival. 
I have 200 acres of cut-over lands in Clare Co., 
three miles out. I cleared six acres of the 40 near¬ 
est town. I hired five men and a team, and all 
worked hard for three weeks clearing land and set¬ 
ting trees. The timber is mostly second-growth oak 
with some underbrush. Cutting the trees down, 
trimming them, piling the brush and burning it cost 
me about $5 per acre. I used 400 pounds of 40 per 
cent dynamite to blow out stumps. We blew about 
a hundred old pine stumps and about the same num¬ 
ber of oak; I took out all the pine stumps, for they 
never rot, but left some of the oak stumps which 
are not in the way of trees sot. Those left, if kept 
sprouted, will decay and eom$B»ut easily in two or 
three years. We fired 218 dynamite shots and missed 
fire but twice. All but one were successful which 
showed excellent judgment on the part of my men 
in using the right amount of dynamite per stump. 
There was not a single accident from the use of 
dynamite during the work. Its use enables one to 
handle the stumps to much better advantage than 
July 12, 
when they are* pulled. The expense is not much 
different in the two methods of clearing. The cost 
of clearing the land for trees was about $25 per 
acre. I could have the trees cut in the late Fall 
and reduce the cost somewhat. 
I engaged the services of a surveyor one day to 
set a row of stakes tree distance apart entirely 
around the six acres. The lining for trees was by 
using live poles, setting them about equal distances 
across the field, and then taking a 10-foot pole (15- 
foot would have been better), we set small stakes 
for each tree. The orchard is planted in triangle 
form 30 feet apart for permanent trees and fillers be¬ 
tween iu the rows north and south. For permanent 
trees I set all Delicious and for fillers Early Melon, 
Wilson’s Red June, Liveland Raspberry, Jonathan 
and McIntosh about equal numbers. The fillers are 
placed in blocks of 10, two rows of five. This ar 
rangement will give perfect pollenization, I think. 
I shall aim so to trim the trees that I can retain 
most of the fillers indefinitely. To further this idea 
I trimmed all the trees, leaving an inner bud on 
each limb. I had good, large holes dug, and set ali 
the trees myself, I holding the tree, working the 
fine dirt around among the roots and firming the 
soil very carefully when the hole was about half 
filled. Then a shovelfuL of well-rotted sheep manure 
was placed around each tree, and more dirt placed 
on top of the manure and well tramped, and then 
two inches of loose earth placed on top to proven 
(lie rapid escape of moisture. The heeling in of the 
trees and the cold weather held the trees in check, 
so that when the planting was done from the 17th 
to the 24th of May the trees went into the ground 
in excellent condition. Perhaps a week or two earlier 
would have been better, but we hurried the clearing 
as fast as we could, and the trees were in at the 
earliest possible date. 
Before the trees were set or holes dug for them 
a back furrow was plowed, followed by three other 
furrows on each side of the row. The remainder of 
the plowing was done after the trees were set. We 
found the plowing was done much better when the 
burning of the brush was done on a dry day, so 
that the leaves would burn and cook the small 
bushes of blueberry and ferns. We learned a lesson, 
too, in the matter of fires. We should have plowed 
about a dozen furrows around our clearing before 
setting any fires. This would have prevented our 
spending some time fighting forest fires, which 
threatened to sweep over a whole section of stand¬ 
ing timber. The newly set orchard is surrounded 
by a plowed firebreak to forestall any possible fire 
damage. The new orchard is surrounded by a 
woven wire fence. The posts were taken from the 
trees cut from the land. This fence will not keep 
out rabbits, and tree protectors will be in order 
before Winter arrives. 
This is one way to spend a vacation. I never 
worked harder in my life. I got up at four o’clock, 
ate an early breakfast and drove three miles to the 
farm, taking one man with me from town. The 
other men lived on farms adjoining my land, and 
were glad of the opportunity to earn some money. 
1 found all the help I needed at $1.60 per day, the 
men boarding themselves, and $3 for man and team. 
All were faithful and earned their money. I would 
have had some difficulty in securing help in an older 
settled community. Here the country is new, and a 
little ready money felt good to these men. Then, 
too, they were interested in this new line of farm¬ 
ing, and wanted to see the venture well started. 1 
was welcome to the use of a well, a barn and all 
the tools of a neighbor. I left tlie orchard in charge 
of this neighbor, who will plant potatoes and beans 
between the troes this year and cai’e for the trees. 
Another Spring I plan to go a month earlier and set 
out about the same number of cherry trees. The 
land is a sandy loam of good quality, with a subsoil 
varying from sand to gravel and clay. There is not 
a foot of waste land on the 200 acres and all of it 
adapted to apples and cherries. f. n. c. 
The Department of Agriculture has made analysis <>1 
many specimens <>f table celery found in the market. 
The tests shows slight amounts of copper in the form 
of dry Bordeaux mixture. The use of copper in food 
products is prohibited by the Bure Food and Drug De¬ 
partment. Most of this copper was found ou the leaves 
of the celery, there being less on the inside or heart ot 
it, and practically all this copper was removed by a 
thorough washing. Investigation showed that this 
trouble was due largely to poor spraying. NN here spray¬ 
ing is done with a high pressure, so as to make a line 
mist of spray, there is little trouble, but much ot this 
celery was sprayed under low pressure. M itb tins 
little streams of the liquid ran down between the stalks 
and settled at the base of the plants. This was not 
washed out by the rain, and the sediment remained 
there as copper. Some persons have thought this sub¬ 
stance was Paris green, but it is merely the copper ami 
lime from the Bordeaux mixture. A careful washing 
of the celery before it is eaten will remove the trouble 
from the stalk, and the leaves of celery on which tne 
Bordeaux accumulates should not be eaten at ail. 
Proper spraying with a high pressure will remove mos 
of the trouble. 
