HO 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
AN “ABANDONED FARM” COMES BACK. 
We read so much about the abandoned 
farms of the State of New York that it 
is enough to make one tired. There are 
a good many farms that have been 
abandoned that without doubt might just 
as well be made to pay by proper treat¬ 
ment, and thus have given the State a 
bad name. I have in mind a farm of 
that class. The farm referred to is 200 
acres of swamp land that 40 or more 
years ago was drained and put under 
cultivation, and raised good crops of 
corn, oats, hay and potatoes, but was 
best adapted to growing seed potatoes. 
The owner being a city man, the farm 
was rented, the tenant paying $500 and 
the taxes yearly, and did this for 20 
years. About that time it became quite 
evident that the ditches were not work¬ 
ing as they should, for the land was get¬ 
ting wetter each year, and the planting 
was delayed later and later each year on 
account of the wet. The owner was ap¬ 
pealed to for help, but preferred to re¬ 
duce the rent rather than put any money 
in the ditches as he believed the wet 
seasons rather than the ditches caused 
the trouble. It kept getting worse, until 
the tenant would not even pay the taxes, 
and moved off. And there it was, aban¬ 
doned by the tenant, and not much better 
by the owner and might fairly be called 
one of the “abandoned farms.” In the 
Fall of 1907 it was sold to persons who 
had known it in its better days, and that 
Fall a ditch was dug through the center 
of the farm. In the Spring of 1908 a 
few acres of potatoes were planted 
where the ditch had been dug. The po¬ 
tatoes soon showed what had been the 
matter. The crop was good, and as soon 
as it was taken care of the owner hired 
a few men and went at the ditching in 
earnest. At the end of a month there 
was a ditch three feet wide at the bot¬ 
tom, six feet wide at the top, and as 
deep as a man could throw the dirt out 
of it, around a 40-acre piece of land. 
In the Spring of 1909 this piece of land 
was put into crops, mainly potatoes, and 
although not by any means the only 
crops grown on the farm, it responded 
so well to the labor of ditching that I 
send you the returns from it to encour¬ 
age anyone who may hesitate about try¬ 
ing his luck on an abandoned farm: Six 
acres of corn, 400 bushels ears, $140; 
four acres of oats, 160 bushels, $64 ; two 
acres of turnips, 300 bushels, $90; cash 
for seed potatoes, $3,65S ; selected seed 
potatoes to plant, $100 ; total, $4,052, to 
say nothing about the 200 or 300 bushels 
of small potatoes and turnips, cornstalks 
and straw enough to winter four cows. 
Not only that, but this land that a few 
years ago went begging for a buyer is 
now salable at four or five times as 
much as it cost. And no doubt there 
are many so-called abandoned farms 
that could be made to do nearly or quite 
as well. H. b. 
Waterloo, N. Y. 
SECOND CROP SEED POTATOES. 
L. IF. 27., Kennebunk, Me. —T am talking 
with a Florida potato grower about raising 
seed potatoes for him another year, and he 
wants to send me the seed to plant from his 
second crop that he plants September and is 
harvesting now (December 27). Can you 
tell me bow the second crop seed will do, 
as compared with seed raised here in the 
North ? 
Ans.— While there is no doubt that 
the second crop seed gives better results 
in the South, all the experiments so far 
reported do not seem to indicate that 
they give equally good results in the 
North. Since the Irish Cobbler has be¬ 
come so popular in the trucking section 
of the South Atlantic region, there has 
been a tendency there to return to the 
Northern seed, as the Cobbler fails to 
make as good a second crop as the Bliss 
and Early Rose that were formerly used. 
But a late-grown crop of these in the 
South, made from potatoes held over in 
cold storage and planted in July or Au¬ 
gust will give better results than the true 
second crop. The main thing seems to 
be to have a potato matured very late 
so that it can be kept till Southern plant¬ 
ing time without sprouting. A potato 
that has not sprouted in the Winter will 
certainly make a better and stronger 
Spring growth than one that has 
sprouted and has had the sprouts rubbed 
off. This has always seemed to me to 
be the chief advantage of the second 
crop in the South. Dug in December and 
planted in February they have not 
sprouted, and grow with the strong 
growth of the terminal bud instead of a 
cluster of lateral shoots. You might ex¬ 
periment with the Florida seed potatoes 
on a small scale and get the results in 
your section for yourself, but I would 
not risk many at first. You will find 
that they are slower to start than your 
own seed potatoes. w. f. massey. 
POTATOES FOR POULTRY. 
What do you think of potatoes as a 
ration for poultry? Are they apt to cause 
bowel trouble or any other sickness? How 
many may we feed to a flock of 100, and 
how much meal should be used with them? 
Hiram, O. c. E. H. 
Neither potatoes nor any other food 
should be fed exclusively or excessively 
to poultry. Boiled potatoes may be safe¬ 
ly used to the extent of 10 or 15 per 
cent of the ration for laying hens, and 
in smaller quantities for growing chicks. 
We always feed about this quantity 
when available, and have never seen any 
ill effects from their use except when 
an excessive amount is fed by mistake. 
Potatoes may be fed raw for green feed 
in Winter as a last resort when nothing 
better can be obtained. There is less 
danger of overfeeding with raw pota¬ 
toes, as they are not as palatable as 
when boiled. Variety and moderation in 
feeding are the watchwords of all suc¬ 
cessful poultry raisers. c. s. greene. 
Boarded Cellar for Brooder. 
How would a cellar boarded up instead 
of brick do for an incubator cellar? Would 
the dampness from the ground come through 
the boards? a. b. q. 
Southold, N. Y. 
We like a cellar very much for a place 
to run incubators in, and if not too wet, 
the dampness is a benefit. We have some 
old incubators that were made to use 
moisture pans inside the machines, but 
in our incubator cellar they give good 
hatches of strong chicks without using 
the pans. In fact the only trouble with 
the incubator cellar is the ventilation. 
We must have good ventilation of the 
cellar without draughts. This we ac¬ 
complish with muslin windows, as our 
cellar is two feet above the ground. We 
have run incubators in many different 
places, but like a basement cellar the 
best, and have had good hatches even 
when water stood in puddles on the 
floor. FLOYD Q. WHITE. 
LEGAL MATTERS. • 
Naturalization of Minor Children. 
If a person born in a foreign country 
comes to this country with his parents, and 
the father becomes a citizen before the 
son is of age, will the son then have to 
take out naturalization papers, or is he a 
citizen? N. p. 
Virginia. 
The naturalization papers will show on 
their face the number of children under 
age, who become citizens at once with their 
father. Such children are already nat¬ 
uralized without further steps. The papers 
of the.father should be kept as evidence. 
Widow’s Right to Wood. 
An estate is being probated here. The 
commissioners appointed by the court to 
set off the widow’s third of the real estate 
gave her the right to cut her firewood from 
the portion assigned to the heirs. Was this 
action legal? The owner of the estate died 
intestate before the Michigan law was passed 
giving the widow full title to one-third of 
the realty. e. f. c. 
It is likely that the probate judge con¬ 
cluded that she did not get her full share 
without this extra tax on the heirs. It is 
the purpose of the probate court to make 
an equitable settlement of the estate. We 
believe this has been done until it is shown 
that the widow gets more than her allow¬ 
ance. If the final decree has not been en¬ 
tered the heirs may ask to have a hear¬ 
ing on it and seek to be relieved of this 
charge. 
Fence Along Railroad. 
I own a farm that fronts 300 rods on a 
steam railroad. The fence needs renewing. 
Do I have to build all of the fence, or can 
I compel the railroad people to build one- 
lialf of it? J. H. D. 
Kentucky. 
The laws of your State places the' rail¬ 
road on the same basis with any other 
property owner as to building and main¬ 
taining fences, which is that each shall 
erect and maintain one-half of the division 
fence. Write the company a demand that 
they keep up their part of the fence, and 
serve this on the station agent. Write them 
that the fence is in a dangerous condition, 
and that y~u will hold them answerable 
for any inj ,.ry done thereby. See Section 
5382. _ 
Seeding Clover with Oats. —I have 
often seen it stated that oats are a poor 
crop to seed clover with, but I agree with 
the editor, for I never had a failure to get 
clover on the freshly prepared land for 
Spring oats, while I have failed more than 
once in sowing on Fall grain in Spring. 
In the South, where oats and wheat are 
both sown in the Fall, clover is also sown 
in the Fall on the freshly worked land, and 
succeeds equally well. But for Spring sow¬ 
ing of clover I would rather sow with oats 
than with any other nurse crop. 
Maryland. w. f. massey. 
Farmer's Share of Oatmeal. —Speak¬ 
ing of the farmer’s share, how about oat¬ 
meal? I notice that the size of the package 
has been cut down very much. All the 
manufacturers seem to have done the same 
thing, as if there was an agreement between 
them. Packages use to run about two 
pounds. I don't believe that they now 
weigh 1 (4 pound. The farmer gets about 
iy 2 cent per pound for his oats and pays 
seven or eight cents for his oatmeal. Where 
does the rest go? w. d. sydxor. 
Virginia. 
Crimson Clover. —In answer to a cor¬ 
respondent in Cass County, Michigan, you 
said : “We doubt whether Crimson clover 
will live through your Winter.” From my 
experience in Van Buren County, just north 
of Cass County, I would not hesitate to ad¬ 
vise F. E. S. to try Crimson clover on his 
farm. I have had a fine stand, and neigh¬ 
bors have grown in successfully for a num¬ 
ber of years. It has been grown and has 
done well too, farther north, in western 
Michigan. You know our region is in many 
ways a favored locality ; we can raise many 
things grown elsewhere only in more south¬ 
ern latitudes. l. a. b. 
Bangor, Mich. 
Pomace as a Fertilizer.— I never had 
any experience with apple pomace myself, 
but I think that it is considered by local 
farmers to have little value as fertilizer. 
With modern presses, at least some of the 
mills press it so dry that they burn it in 
their furnaces in connection with other fuel, 
for making steam, but I do not think this 
amounts to much more than a little adver¬ 
tising! Formerly when nearly every farmer 
was running an evaporator every year and 
throwing away the skins and cores, I have 
seen large heaps drawn and dumped in 
waste spots or into the woods, because peo¬ 
ple believed it would sour the land if spread 
anywhere. I have let large heaps lie and 
rot down, and nothing would grow in those 
places for several years, but afterward 
weeds and grass would come in and do well. 
Wayne Co., N. Y. j. a. c. 
January 22, 
When you write advertisers mention The 
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