1913. 
933 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
[THE HAY PRESS HAS COME. 
Tbe picture shows a familiar scene on 
farms where hay is a staple crop. Some 
farmers have their own press, built in 
the barn, or movable, so that it can be 
carted about to different buildings or 
stacks; but large numbers depend on the 
traveling presser, who goes about doing 
the work for a whole neighborhood, or 
perhaps several. When the press ar¬ 
rives, the farmer and his men, and the 
women, too, know that there will be 
“something doing” and a hungry crowd 
to feed. 
One man who spent most of his time 
on the road with a hay press, thrashing 
machine or buzz saw said he liked this 
because it was the same as' “going visit¬ 
ing all the time.” He was a terrific 
worker and had a flow of language (not 
profanity) that might well be envied by 
a congressman with a pet tariff schedule 
to rescue from unfeeling revisers. His 
talk, instead of wearying the gang kept 
them good-natured. 
At that time the writer was a hired 
man on a farm that cut about 100 tons 
of market hay yearly. Under the inspi¬ 
ration of this boss presser we one day 
ran out 150 bales, averaging 200 pounds 
each, which was considered a pretty fair 
day’s work. My part of the job was to 
dig the hay out of the mow and get it to 
the press platform. As the hay had been 
put in with horse fork, dropped in large 
training in an agricultural college, based 
on good country experience as a boy and 
some practical experience after leaving 
college. He is to advise farmers and to 
show them on a farm conveniently locat¬ 
ed in the county, the best methods of 
farming. There is already a demonstra¬ 
tor in Sussex County, and one in Mercer. 
The Experiment Station appoints the 
demonstrators and the State and the 
counties pay them. 
The Mercer County Farm Bureau is 
now suggesting to the farmers Winter 
cover crops and Alfalfa as soil improvers 
and in this connection has planned for 
two demonstrations. These will be the 
third and fourth of the soil improvement 
series—the first and second having dealt 
with top-dressing and lime respectively. 
Inoculating cultures from the Govern¬ 
ment at Washington may be obtained 
from the Bureau’s farm agent, who will 
also furnish the addresses of shippers 
who will supply lime direct in carload 
lots, and of seed dealers having first qual¬ 
ity Crimson clover, Winter vetch, or Al¬ 
falfa seed. In order to make sure that 
the seeds are of the best quality growers 
are advised to send samples to the seed 
analyst at the State Experiment Station, 
New Brunswick, who will gladly give 
them the desired information. 
The College Farm at the State Experi¬ 
ment Station, New Brunswick, returns 
an_ annual profit to the State of about 
$25,000. According to a statement just 
made by Dr. Jacob G. I.ipman, the di¬ 
rector, this amount was exceeded last 
year. Last year, the horticultural de¬ 
partment brought in a return of $9,000, 
chiefly through experiments in peach 
growing. The State is conducting sev¬ 
eral large peach orchards, the ground be¬ 
ing rented by the year. Some of this 
THE HAY PRESS HAS COME. Fig. 351. 
wads from the peak of a two-story barn, 
and left to roll where it pleased, without 
any mowing away, it was considerably 
tangled, and the mow a series of hollows 
and rounds, resembling the “Mountains 
of the Moon.” A lecture on the need of 
“physical culture” would not have been 
highly appreciated by any of us that 
night. 
At one time it was the custom to put 
four “slats” in large bales, one at every 
lengthwise edge. Sixteen pounds was the 
weight commonly allowed, but those 
who saw a profit in selling green oak at 
hay prices often worked in as much as 
30 pounds. This swindle was seldom 
successful, however, as buyers offered less 
or insisted on a deduction on hay heavily 
wooded. Many States now have laws 
governing baled hay. In New York no 
bale weighing 200 pounds or more shall 
have more than 20 pounds of wood to 
the bale, and those under 200 must not 
have above 10 pounds of wood. No wet 
or damaged hay or other materials shall 
be concealed in any bale. An amendment 
to the law in effect July 1, 1913, provides 
that every presser of hay or straw for 
market shall mark all bales with his 
name and business address, and the cor¬ 
rect weight of the bale, the marking to 
be made on a tag not less than I^>x3 
inches, securely fastened to the bale. The 
word “presser” here means the “person, 
firm, association or corporation owning 
or having ^possession and operating the 
hay press.” There is a fine of $5 for 
every violation of these provisions. 
PROGRESS IN THE GARDEN STATE. 
State Superintendent of Weights and 
Measures Waldron, of New Jersey, is 
continuing his crusade against dishonest 
weights, scales and measures, and has 
just sent to city and county sealers in¬ 
structions embodying the information 
prepared by the National Bureau of 
standards designed to remove in detail 
the various causes of dishonesty in the 
weighing and measuring of commodities. 
Under a law passed by the last Legis¬ 
lature, each county may now have a 
demonstrator who has had four years of 
land in South Jersey was not paying the 
rental price. Corn would not grow on 
it high enough to produce ears, so as an 
experiment some of it was rented to show 
that an orchard, properly set out and 
managed could be made profitable. An¬ 
other source of revenue in this depart¬ 
ment was from the sale of roses and car¬ 
nations grown in the greenhouses at the 
College Farm. From this source the 
State received $3,000. During the year 
4,000 chicks were hatched, and the money 
from the sale of eggs and birds amounted 
to about $4,000. Several kinds of chick¬ 
ens are kept at the farm. Dr. Lipman 
said if this department was run merely 
as a money-making venture some of the 
breeds, such as the Langshan, would not 
be kept, and only the best money pro¬ 
ducers raised. In the swine department 
the pork products brought in $3,000, and 
in the dairy department the revenue was 
$9,000, mostly from the sale of milk. 
Prof. Julius Nelson, biologist of the 
State Agricultural Station, and Chief 
Charles R. Bacon, of the State Bureau 
of Shell Fisheries, have made arrange¬ 
ments to establish in this State the first 
oyster observation station in this coun¬ 
try. The object of the observatory is to 
obtain needed data on the conditions of 
water, atmosphere and bottom which con¬ 
trol the growth of shellfish. 
New Jersey’s fire line law has been 
nullified by the State court of last resort 
on the ground that it conflicts with the 
constitutional provision that “private 
property shall not be taken for public 
use without just compensation.” The 
law, passed in 1909. provided for the 
clearing of the growth and underbrush 
adjoining railroad rights of way as a 
safeguard against sparks from locomo¬ 
tives starting disastrous fires. Some way 
must now be found by the next Legisla¬ 
ture to cure the vital defect in the 1909 
statute. New Jersey has 2,000,000 acres 
of forest, comprising 42 per cent of the 
land area of the State. Surely, this is 
an asset worth conserving. 
The management of the Inter-State 
Fair, at Trenton, has arranged for a spe¬ 
cial public school pupil competition in 
garden and other exhibits. The contest 
is open only to the pupils of the public 
schools of the State. The classes in J 
which prizes are offered comprise rural 
school districts, individual rural schools, 
individual pupils and home gardens. 
At the Monmouth County Fair, which 
is one of the greatest county fairs in this 
country, prizes will be given to the school 
children, who secure the greatest number 
of exhibits. Many of the farmers pro¬ 
duce fine crops, but do not take the 
trouble to prepare any of them for ex¬ 
hibition. By the above means, it is hoped 
not only greatly to increase the number 
of exhibits in each department, but to 
incite enthusiasm among the pupils of 
the public schools. Another novel fea¬ 
ture at the Monmouth Fair will be a cat- I 
tie judging contest for boys 12 to 20 
years old. This contest is intended to 
encourage boys to learn the good- points 
of cattle, so that they may be able to 
judge them properly when they take up 
active farm work for themselves. Breed¬ 
ers of purebred cattle in Monmouth 
County have offered to donate bull calves 
as premiums in this contest. These bull 
calves will be of blooded stock and in 
each case when full grown, will be fit to 
head a herd of high-grade cattle. Prof. 
II. H. Ming, of Cornell University, will 
judge the cattle. Before the judging by 
the boys is begun he will give the boys 
who enter this contest a little talk on 
cattle and will tell them how to select a 
good cow from a poor one. Then a num¬ 
ber of cows will be turned into the judg¬ 
ing pen. Each boy entering the contest 
will have a pad of paper and a pencil 
handed to him and he will note down on 
the paper the cow which he considers the 
best in the pen, the second best, etc., and 
his reasons for making his selections. No 
boy who has had any instruction what¬ 
ever from any agricultural college will be 
permitted to compete. The boy placing 
the cows nearest right and giving the 
best reasons for his selections will have 
first choice of the bull calves offered as 
premiums, the boy coming next will have 
second choice, and so on. 
The four State Summer schools have 
about 800 students. The most elaborate 
courses are those given at the State col¬ 
lege and include such subjects as nature 
study, school gardening, elementary agri¬ 
culture, poultry husbandry and agricul¬ 
tural botany. 
An advanced step will be taken this 
Fall when horticulture and agriculture 
will be taught in the Middletown town¬ 
ship high school at Leonardo. Horticul¬ 
ture will be taught by an expert in the 
private employ of one of the members of 
the Board of Education and agriculture 
by an instructor engaged especially for 
the purpose. The Freehold high school 
is the only other school in the State that 
teaches agriculture. This school has a 
miniature farm near the school building, 
where the subject and allied branches are 
taught in concrete form. If the new 
courses prove successful at Leonardo a 
farm will be laid out near the school. 
Following in the steps of similar or¬ 
ganizations in other counties, Burlington 
County farmers have organized to meet 
the increased tax in living with the co¬ 
operative effort in the production and 
sale of farm, garden, dairy and orchard 
products. They have formed the Burl¬ 
ington County Produce Sales Company, 
which has just been incorporated by the 
Secretary of State, with an authorized 
capital stock of $50,000. The headquar¬ 
ters will be in Mount Holly. 
The elm leaf-beetle, which at one time 
was said to threaten the lives of all the 
elm trees in the State, is now reported 
to be not only under control, but dimin¬ 
ishing in numbers very appreciably. The 
time is said to be not far distant when 
its ravages on the foliage of elm trees 
will be negligible and it may be entirely 
eradicated throughout New Jersey. The 
reasons for the disappearance of this beetle 
are not easily explainable, but it is pre¬ 
sumed. with some reason, that a parasite 
of the beetle has made its appearance and 
has already begun its destructive work. 
From present indications there will 
hardly be half a crop of cranberries in 
New Jersey this Fall. Growers all over 
the State report that the berries were 
badly hit by the frosts of early June. 
Even before that many of the berries did 
not blossom out. There was a new 
growth of vine but no blossoms. 
n. t. n. i 
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Seeding Down Time 
Make New Soil Again 
***** * If you have a piece of land 
that is not producing as much 
as you think it should; write 
us about it. 
We will be very glad to give 
you advice as to what methods will best restore it 
to full productiveness. 
We prepare special fertilizers for particular soils and special crops. 
Let us tell you how we have helped many a farmer raise 
CROPS 
\ ou can read it in our 1913 Almanac or in our Booklets on Soil, 
and on Grass Crops. 
THE ROGERS & HUBBARD CO., Address Dept. A, Middletown, Conn. 
OFFICE AND WORKS, PORTLAND, CONN. 
