1326 
THE R.UR..A.L. jM IS W - Y ORKEK 
Hope Farm Notes 
On December 1 the cows were still at 
pasture, with the grass green and long. 
It has been but little injured by the frost. 
The cows get a peek of mangels per day 
and dry stalks with their grain. I think 
a cow should be well trained for her Win¬ 
ter job. A cushion of fat over her bones 
makes the long barn prison a little softer. 
Ten years ago I used to argue that it did 
not pay us to grow feed corn or to keep 
cattle. I thought sweet corn would pay 
better—selling the ears and feeding the 
stalks. At that time Western corn was 
very cheap, and cows were slow of sale. 
Now corn is high and good cows are 
in big demand. People have learned how 
to pick out a good cow—on her record 
and test as well as her shape. We can 
grow corn and cover crops between our 
tree rows and take care of a few choice 
heifers. This adds a profitable side is¬ 
sue to fruit farming, and the practice is 
sure to spread. A warm Fall, like this 
one, makes such growth on the cover 
crops that the heifers will not cost much. 
Calf feeding will pay if a man lives where 
calves can be bought cheap. 
We are still working off the apple 
crop. I never realized before how much 
a good storage plant means to a fruit 
grower. I saw a man last week who has 
9,000 barrels in city storage. This man 
buys the fruit in the neighbors’ orchards 
and sprays and handles it to suit him. 
Long experience has made him a fine 
judge of fruit, and he can estimate what 
a tree or an orchard will give him. He 
gets his crop into storage, and in a year 
like this he is master of the situation. 
He can spend the Winter in the city sell¬ 
ing his fruit. This year the price is 
steadily rising on good apples. We sold 
our crop early because I felt that the 
warm Fall would spoil the cellar apples. 
It was better to get rid of them at a fair 
price, rather than to hold in poor storage 
and take the risk of loss. I am not much 
of a plunger unless I know how deep the 
water is. Next year we must have a 
storage house. 
Do I understand that you advise plant¬ 
ing the Northern Spy apple in New Jer¬ 
sey? I thought that location was too far 
south. s. J. R. 
It is for the best results. Our North¬ 
ern Spy trees bear well and give fine 
large fruit, but the variety should be 
handled in late September. We let our 
Spys remain on the tree too long this 
year. They stopped growing and split 
open. Picked in September they were 
excellent, but after they are ripe they 
must come off the trees. 
Will you inform me where the mulley 
or hornless cow originated? w. F. 
New York. 
My understanding is that the original 
cow was polled or hornless. The horns 
seem to be a growth produced through 
many generations as weapons or for 
other use. Every now and then these 
polled heads seem to appear in all the 
cattle breeds as a result of what is called 
“atavism” or breeding back. Some old 
inheritance or tendency comes from a 
far back ancestor and develops in the off¬ 
spring. The polled calves which come 
from horned parents are products of the 
original type. There are polled families 
of Short-horn, Hereford, Jersey, Hol¬ 
stein and Guernsey. Of course the An¬ 
gus, Galloway and Red Poll are naturally 
hornless. All cattle would be better off 
without horns, and it seems better to 
have a naturally polled head than to cut 
the horns off or kill them on the calf. 
The tax problem is getting to be a fierce 
one here. For the sake of comparison 
will you tell us how your tax rate is 
made up? J. L. s. 
Michigan. 
Here are the items in my tax bill, due 
December 20 of this year. This is the 
rate per .$100: 
County tax.$0.45 
County poor.01 
State school.24 
Borough .89 
Special .30 
Total.$1.89 
This is somewhat less than in former, 
years. I have often pointed out that in 
New Jersey we are supposed to escape 
paying any tax to support our State 
government, since the corporations are 
supposed to pay it for us. I would like 
to have property owners in other States 
compare these figures with their own. 
We give one cent out of each $100 for 
the poor! The “borough” and special 
taxes take care of our local government 
and pay interest and bonds for handling 
a system of fine roads. As nearly as I 
can figure it, I should say that land is 
assessed at about one-third of its value, 
while buildings are assessed at about one- 
half, with personal property at perhaps 
one-third. Personally I would not mind 
asking each taxpayer to state just the 
selling price of his property and tax him 
on that. That would bring down the tax 
rate and, on the whole, be a fairer sys¬ 
tem of valuation. 
Is the bone phosphate in tankage avail¬ 
able as plant, food? Is it the same as 
phosphoric acid from bone? E. L. B. 
Galway, N. Y. 
In a good sample of tankage the phos¬ 
phoric acid is about as soluble as that 
in steamed bone. It makes a difference, 
of course, as to how fine the tankage is. 
Remember that the tankage is a mixture 
of bone, meat and offal cooked under a 
powerful heat. The fat or grease is taken 
off and the residue dried and ground. 
Thus it is much the same as meat and 
bone and the cooking would naturally 
make the bone part of it a little more 
available than a raw ground bone. 
A member of the family, whose opinion 
I should much prefer to respect, tells me 
I have taken $100 from the value of our 
farm horse by clipping his mane. He is 
a slow, clumsy, willing beast about nine 
or 10 years, and about 1,100 weight. 
Of course his selling value is meant, as 
his service value is not impaired ; on the 
contrary, it is increased, as he sweats less 
in the stall and is easier cleaned. I would 
be very grateful for an expression of good 
opinion on the matter. E. L. s 
Massachusetts. 
How much was the horse worth before 
his mane was clipped? This question of 
values depends on the point of view. I 
know truckmen who clip off the mane as 
soon as they buy a horse. They claim an 
animal does better at hard work. On the 
other hand, I have seen women cry when 
old Tom's mane was cut. With the aver¬ 
age buyer, prejudiced against a mule, 
the mane clipping would mean a loss 
of about one-third of the horse’s sell¬ 
ing price. Aside from any “beauty” of 
the mane, the horse is better off for the 
clipping. 
I 
I presume many of our readers have 
followed the news reports of the campaign 
to raise $4,000,000 for Y. 1VI. C. A. work 
in New York. It seemed like an enormous 
undertaking, yet the money was finally 
pledged, with some $60,000 to spare. The 
gifts ranged all the way from $1 to $350,- 
000. Money flows into this great city 
from all over the world. The 65 cents of 
the dollar which the handlers receive, and 
a good share of the farmer’s 35 cents as 
well, finds its way finally to the big cities, 
where too much of it remains unevenly 
distributed. As this goes on for years 
the country comes to be something like a 
man with a very poor circulation. The 
blood does not make its way freely to 
hands or feet or skin, and he suffers. No 
man can do good work with frosted finger 
tips or cold feet, even though there be 
blood enough in his body. Money piled 
up in the big cities makes a good showing 
on paper, but when it is sucked away 
from the farms or small places that it 
may be hoarded here the fingers and feet 
of the nation are left chilled. Y r et there 
are many who come after this city 
money. Some are dishonest, crooks by 
nature, who come here to gamble and rob. 
They merely put dirt on the money and 
it is left here. Then there are bright 
young boys and girls from the country 
who are dissatisfied with home conditions, 
and come here to earn some of this 
money. They struggle and toil, some 
make a fair living and more, while others 
find themselves out of place. They would 
be far better off at home, if the conditions 
could be a little different, so as to pro¬ 
vide a good business chance. 
But New York also has its share of 
people who come to get some of this New 
York money for worthy purposes. This 
$4,000,000 for the Y. M. C. A. will be 
well spent, and I wish that a large share 
of it could be used for such work as they 
are doing in Windsor County, Vermont. 
While this work was going on I kept 
track of the worthy calls for this New 
York money which came to notice in one 
day—without any effort to hunt them up. 
First came two Sisters of Charity—wom¬ 
en who had given their lives to work 
among the poor. Then came a man who 
is giving his life unselfishly to trying to 
maintain a negi’o school in the South. 
Then followed a Salvation Army captain. 
I met by accident, when I went out, a 
man who was trying to raise a little fund 
to help support the family of a comrade 
who had been sent to the hospital with a 
crushed leg. Around the corner there 
was a blax*e of music where a band of 
colored boys in red uniforms were trying 
to raise funds for an orphan school in 
South Carolina. Up the street an old 
man was trying to raise funds to establish 
a hospital in the West Indies. At dinner 
I met a friend who was raising funds for 
the purchase of a wooden leg for a poor 
man. l~ou take an amateur philanthro¬ 
pist with a dollar in his pocket, and he 
surely runs the gauntlet in New r York. 
Under the shadow of the great buildings 
and within reach of hoarded millions of 
money want and sorrow come with their 
tales of misery and need. I suppose if 
we were to know the vast sums of 
money that are giveix away for charity in 
this great city we should be astonished. 
Of course the country and its people 
would be far better off if this money and 
more could be distributed and sent out 
for investment in country enterprises. 
Instead of crowding money and business 
upon this small island of Manhattan a 
good share of it ought to be sent back to 
the little water powers in the hills, or 
to the contexts of country population. 
Many of the manufacturers would be 
better off for such distribution, while it 
would mean the very bread of life to 
country neighborhoods. It would hold 
the children of the hill towns and give 
us the old-time country population which 
has meant so much to this nation. It 
would also settle the 35-cent dollar ques¬ 
tion. II. w. c. 
Cash for 
Raw Furs 
Why sell your skins at 
home when you can 
send thorn to us and 
save all middlemen’s 
profits? Now York is 
the best market in 
America. We pay cash 
for hides of Skunks, 
Minks, Coons, Opossums, Foxes, etc. Thirty years in 
the business. No commission charged.We stand express 
on T DIITI CD Pfl charges.^ Write for price list. 
OtLI, dUILlK UU., Exporters, 4 East 12th St., New York 
December 13, 
When you write advertisers mention Tiie 
I t. N.-Y. and you'll get a quick reply ami a 
“square deal.’ See guarantee editorial page. 
HUNTERS -- TRAPPERS 
If you want an ideal lamp .for night fishing, trap¬ 
ping, hunting or lor work about farm or machin¬ 
ery, send to-day for a 
Baldwin Lamp 
Projects n 1 X candle power huht 150 teet. 
Burns Acetylene Gas. Weight 6 oz. 
Height3^ In. Can be carried tn hand 
or worn on cap or belt, leaving both 
hands free. No oil, soot or class. Ab¬ 
solutely safe and simple. Kitty hours 
bright light costa 95c. Useful as well 
during Automobile repairing. Catalogue 
free and Instructive booklet, ’‘Knots find 
How to Tie Them” mailed on request. 
At all dealers or by JOHN SIMMONS CO. 
mail prepaid -$1.00 148 Leonard St. New York City 
TRAPPING PAYS BIG 
if you know the insld© secrets of ths 
business. Fur News Magazine, published 
monthly, $1.00 a year, tells all about trapping, hunting, raw 
furs, hunting dogs, guttg, traps, carops»and all pursuits for profit 
In the woods and holds. Lots of good stories. SPECIAL OKMK, 
Send 25©. for 3 months’ trial and get FREE valuable 6-1-page 
Trappers Guide. FUR NEWS Pl’B.CO., 75 >V. 28rd St., Now York 
Cash Prices for HighestCow and Horse Hides 
and fancy prices for Calf Skins. Address 
ROGERS TANNERY, - Farmingdale, N. J. 
SKUNK 
WE PAY TOP PRICES FOR SKUNK. 
MINK, MUSKRAT, AND ALL RAW FURS, 
Price list. free. IVI. J. .Jewett & 
Sons, Redwood, N.Y. Depl. 29. 
G. I. FOX. 274 
Seventh Ave. 
N. Y. A square 
deal, liberal as¬ 
sortment, top 
prices. Write 
for price list. 
RAW FURS WANTED 
I PAY THE HIGHEST CASH PRICES for all kinds of raw 
furs, and GUARANTEE YOU a square deal. Try mo ami 
see. .J. C. MANNING, Nortliampton, Mass. 
LET US TAN 
YOUR HIDE. 
Cattle or Horse hide, Calf, Dog, Deer 
or any kind of skin with ban- or l'ur on. 
Wo tan and finish thorn right ; make 
them into coats ifor men aud women), 
robes,rugs or g-loves when ordered. 
Vour fur goods will cost you less than 
to „uy them, and be worth more. Our 
lllustratod catalog gives a lot of in 
formation which every stock raiser 
should have, but we never send out this 
valuable book except upon request. 
It tells how to take olt and care for 
hides; how and when wo pay the froight 
both ways ; about our safe dyeing pro¬ 
cess which is a tremendous advantage 
to the customer, especially on horso 
hidos and calf skins ; about the fur 
goods and game trophies wo sell, taxi¬ 
dermy, etc. If you want a copy send us 
your correct address. 
The Crosby Frisian Fur Company, 
571 Lyeli Ave., Rochester. N. Y, 
We 
Receive 
URS 
from all over IT. S. and Canada. Why 
not ship to us? You will sooner or 
later. Send for price list and ship to 
M. F. Pfaelzer & Co., 
119 W. 29th St. (Desk 22), 
New York City. 
We guarantee to hold all shipments entirely separate, and in ease our valua¬ 
tions are not satisfactory we will return your goods at once, and pay all 
express charges both ways. 
H. A. PERKINS & CO. 
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION, VT. 
References: Dun or Bradstreet Commercial Agencies —Any Bank 
FUN AND MONEY 
x _ in Trapping with 
Victor traps 
To Boys or “ Grown-Ups”:—Write for 
free booklet on trapping, showing how 
you can make money before and after 
school or between “chore" times. 
Address ONEIDA COMMUNITY, Ltd., Oneida, N.Y. 
NO. 20 KENWOOD AVE. 
