1913. 
THE RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
871 
THE BACK-TO-THE-LANDER GAME. 
Success Depends on the Man. 
time when farmwork i.s usually slack. We would 
advise both of these men to follow out their p/ans. 
In order to be honest we are obliged, however, to 
York, also whether there are any fakes or guffs goirg 
around in this business. . k. j. m. 
Seneca Co., N. Y. 
In your last issue you have a warning for the town 
reader, to discourage his going back to the laud, which 
hits me pretty hard. I will just tell you the condi¬ 
tions in my case and then ask your advice as to what 
I should do. I was a weakling from birth—consump¬ 
tion in the family—and was apprenticed as a watch¬ 
maker when 14 years old as is usual in the old coun¬ 
try. I have been making my living in country towns 
ever since its I never could stand it long in the city, 
my health giving out. My dream for a good many years 
has been to acquire a competence and then settle down 
in the country on five or 10 acres of land, fruit, a cow, 
berries, etc., not to depend on making a living on the 
produce, but have enough capital to live on the interest. 
This farm to he near Chicago, so that, if I feel like it, 
1 can slip into the city and take in the opera or special 
conventions, etc. Don’t you think this would be a bet¬ 
ter plan to live on $600 or $700 a. year than move into 
the city? Don’t you think 
it gives a man a better 
chance to do good, than if 
he were living in tin' 
city? Don’t you think it 
will give him a better 
rest for the remaining 
years of his life with less 
chance of losing his 
money than in the city? 
Don’t you think, if I did 
not know how to act as a 
small farmer, some one 
could show me even if I 
had to pay for it? I don’t 
want to do this yet, but in 
about two or three years 
I would like to take this 
step. E. V. 
Iowa. 
About the time we re¬ 
ceived the above letter, 
there came one from a 
blacksmith, a man good 
at his trade, who is 
working in the city at 
fair wages. This man 
has always wanted to 
live in the country on a farm of his own. He has a 
chance to get hold of a small place on easy terms 
in a good neighborhood, and thinks that he can open 
a little shop in connection with his farm and do 
-some work for the neighboring farmers. This man 
worked on the farm when he was a boy, has always 
worked with his hands, and really wants to go to the 
country. lie wants to know if it is a safe proposi¬ 
tion for him to do so. We have been accused of 
throwing cold water upon the schemes of back-to- 
the-landers, but in the two cases here given, our 
advice would be to try the country. We do advise 
against a move to the country on the part of people 
who have never lived there, who have never none 
hard work for years, 
and vs'ho have little or 
no capital to start 
with. With such people 
our experience shows 
that it is a five or six 
to one chance that the.V 
will fail. They know 
little or nothing about 
farming, and have little 
conception of the loneli¬ 
ness and discomforts 
which Winter will bring 
to their wives and 
daughters in a farm¬ 
house, with few com¬ 
forts and far from 
neighbors. We know 
just how these people 
feel, and their desire to 
get away from the city, 
but we know only too 
well that the majority 
<4 them are not fitted 
for farm life. They no 
doubt think they are. 
and if it were possi¬ 
ble for them to try the 
experiment and give it 
up as soon as they 
found they were mis¬ 
taken, without serious 
loss to them, we should advise them to try it. With 
most of them, however, failure would mean disaster. 
I heir money would lie gone, their ideal would be 
destroyed, and it would be hard for them to work 
' 'k into a job in the city once more. The two 
<ases here mentioned are different. The Iowa man 
d'»es not expect to make his living out of the farm, 
hi this he is wise, and if he will keep some of his 
capital at safe investment so as to give him an out- 
mde income, he will get through. He will enjoy his 
country life, and be better off for the chance. The 
blacksmith also has a good chance to succeed, lie 
knows what work is, and his trade will enable him 
tu get some little income outside of the farm, and 
wdl especially give him a profitable job during the 
advise against a move in the country by many 
back-to-the-landers who apply to us Their sentiment 
is right, and their desire to get away from the town 
is commendable, but the trouble is that they will not 
realize that farming without capital and without 
experience is a hard struggle, and a desperate 
undertaking. 
A BENCH OF POULTRY CRANKS. 
At Fig. 320 i.s shown a group of poultry cranks. 
From left to right we have J. F. Ketchum, superin¬ 
tendent of the laying competition; R. E. Jones, as¬ 
sistant in poultry husbandry; Mr. Rawcliffe, of 
PLANTING CELERY AFTER SPINACH IN WESTERN NEW YORK. Fig 
England: Mrs. Tom Rarron. Tom Darren. Cep. A. 
Cosgrove and Prof. W. F. Kirkpatrick. On page 
Ss4 is an article by Cosgrove which should be read 
in this connection. Mr. Barron’s name has become 
familiar to our readers through the remarkable rec¬ 
ord made by his Leghorn hens. His birds are clearly 
superior. They are “Business Hens" in the true 
sense, and if they and Mr. Barron can show our 
American hen men how to produce American stock 
which will equal them they will do our country a 
service. We want to know how Tom Barron breeds, 
selects and feeds his hens in order to produce prize 
winners. From Mr. Cosgrove’s account we judge 
that they are trap-nested, but it is a 10 to one guess 
We think that when you drove off and left this 
man to talk to himself you did a fine day's work. 
If more farmers would act that way farming would 
be much more prosperous for fanners and less so for 
fakers. Just now this Catalpa proposition is a fa¬ 
vorite one for “fakes and guffs.”- We are having 
many letters from farmers some of whom have 
signed a contract to pay .$50 or more for these trees. 
As for growing Catalpa in New York State, we have 
the following letter from Raphael Zen of the United 
States Forest Service: 
Catalpa is a very good tree to plant in the Central 
Most. There plantations on good soils properlv culti¬ 
vated and pruned contain at 10 years of age a large 
number of trees suitable 
for fence posts and may 
often be cut clean for 
this purpose when from 
12 to 15 years old. It is, 
however, not hardy and 
does not make a‘ rapid 
growth in the northern 
part of the country and 
1 would not recommend 
its use in New York for 
fence or timber purposes. 
It will live and grow in 
New York State and per¬ 
haps farther north, but 
in most cases it will be 
scrubby in character. It 
may be planted for orna¬ 
mental purposes, but even 
then it is more of a nov¬ 
elty than a well-shaped 
tree which adds much to 
the landscape. 
RAPHAEL 7.0 N. 
Chief of Forest Inves¬ 
tigations. 
That is probably a 
fair statement about it 
though these Catalpa 
agents will doubtless 
tell you Mr. Zon does not know anything about it. 
We should consider $60 a good-sized price to pay for 
trees to be used as ornaments. Your name at the 
end of one of these contracts may be ornamental to 
your family, but the agent will find it more useful 
than you do. 
119. 
POULTRY CRANKS AT THE HEN CONTEST. Fig. 320. 
that they are not picked out by the scale of fancy 
points. 
CONTRACTS FOR CATALPA TREES. 
There has been a Catalpa tree agent through here 
selling trees by the thousand to farmers who own their 
farms. He is to charge two cents apiece where one 
farmer takes 3,000 or more; under that amount 2!4 
cents per tree. He claims to be selling for some Indi¬ 
ana firm. lie also claims the trees would grow to 
fence post size in four years. I have not seen the con¬ 
tract. He talked very alluringly to me on the subject 
and tried hard to sell me some. I told him I would 
think about it for awhile. He said he could not come 
back this way again and seemed very anxious to press 
the subject at once as I was driving team in my field. 
1 simply drove off and left him. What I want to know 
is what these trees should cost and also about how fast 
I could really expect them to grow in Central New 
AN OLD TREE FAKE. 
Do you know anything about the Green Mount Nurs¬ 
ery, of Greenfield, Indiana, Jas. I*. Moore & Son, pro¬ 
prietors? A man came to my place to-day and wanted 
to put out from one to 20 acres of peaches, 200 trees 
to the acre, he to furnish half and I half of trees at 
$60 per 100; he to take care of the trees for three 
years and have half of the third crop of peaches. He 
claimed to have a hybrid peach which would bear every 
year. I thought I have 
seen him exposed in The 
R. N.-Y., but was not 
sure. He has done a 
large business through 
here, but it looks to me 
like a fake. His order 
blanks don't say what the 
trees shall be, budded or 
hybrid. l. h. c. 
Osseo, Mich. 
The firm has no pub¬ 
lished commercial rat¬ 
ing. At any rate the 
scheme is an old fake 
which we have exposed 
time after time. These 
fakes usually have some 
wonderful new variety 
which you cannot buy 
anywhere else. Some¬ 
times they claim it 
grows wool like a sheep 
so that early frosts can¬ 
not hurt it. Of course 
this wool drops off later 
—I eaving the finest 
quality of flesh. Again 
the tree is bug and dis¬ 
ease proof. Insects will 
not touch it and it can¬ 
not contract disease. 
Sometimes they claim 
the peach is grafted on 
oak roots so the borers 
will not touch it. There is no end to the fake stories 
these fellows will tell and when the wonderful va¬ 
riety comes in bearing it is some standard old 
variety or some seedling so late that it will rarely 
ripen before frost. In most cases these fakes never 
intend to take care of the trees or pick any fruit. 
They get your contract for 100 trees at $60 and that 
is all they want. At 60 cents for a tree possibly 
worth 10 cents they can afford to let their wonderful 
profits from fruit sales go. In cases which we have 
investigated these agents got a good slice of the 
purchase price when they delivered the trees. Then 
they sometimes come back and trim the young trees 
and get another slice of the price. That is the end 
of it. They have about four times what the trees 
are worth, while you have the experience. Let them 
alone. 
