874 
THE RURAb NEW-YORKER 
drawn more and more to the movement for the ad¬ 
vancement of rural life. Labor and time-saving in¬ 
strumentalities are a part of the economics necessary 
to be considered in order to reach a successful solu¬ 
tion. A little reflection will demonstrate to every 
farmer and resident of the rural districts the advan¬ 
tages which a parcels post would offer. For instance, 
over the country stretches a network of telephone 
lines. They have become as essential to the rural as 
to the urban resident, and are in constant use for 
conveying information, making appointments and 
arranging business details. But if the farmer needs a 
dozen screws, a few wagon bolts, a plowshare, or any 
one or more of the innumerable articles almost daily 
required on a farm; or, if the housewife finds the tea 
canister or sugar box empty, a spool of thread lacking, 
etc., in all such cases how convenient, and how 
economical of time and labor, if an order could be 
transmitted by telephone, and the articles needed be 
received by next mail delivery. At present, how much 
time is lost by being obliged to “hitch up and go to 
town” on small errands. We in the country now 
have the telephone and R. F. D. Parcels post would 
complete a beneficent triad, and add more than a third 
to the usefulness and efficiency of the other two. Once 
established, it would prove itself indispensable. 
This article is intended to be suggestive, and is far 
from exhaustive. Many arguments and viewpoints 
remain untouched. The whole subject should be agi¬ 
tated and discussed in all its bearings. The training 
of a large proportion of country people in the past has 
been to “get along” with what they have, when con¬ 
venient facilities are lacking. The reaching after and 
attainment of more advantageous conditions should 
include the parcels post as an important addition which 
requires attention at once. This should be emphasized 
with such force that the peoples’ representatives will 
understand that unless such attention, effective and 
satisfactory, is given, their employers, the people, will 
know the reason why not. Because, as already stated, 
parcels post is inter-related with both the question of 
the general good versus special advantages for a privil¬ 
eged and protected few, and the furnishing of in¬ 
creased facilities for the betterment of country life. 
D. H. AYERS. 
CHEMICALS IN WESTERN ORCHARDS. 
Experience From Illinois and Missouri. 
Are fruit growers in the West using chemicals to any 
extent, or do they feel that the soil is naturally strong 
< nough to produce fruit crops with no help beside cover 
crops 1 
I think it safe to say that some of us have felt the 
need of some sort of help for the trees—just what is 
best to use is hard to determine, or I might say, much 
depends on the age of the trees and the crops they 
may have matured, soil, etc. From my experience 
and observation, trees up to 17 or 18 years old in our 
soils do not need any fertilizers except in some cases 
where they have matured heavy crops for several 
years in succession (a very few of our orchards have 
this habit). I think an old orchard should have some 
barnyard manure every year or two, just enough to 
keep vigorous growth. Cover crops and cultivation 
should take care of the trees until they get old. 
Illinois. . J. w. HUNTER. 
The fruit growers in the Ozark section are using 
very little, in fact, almost no chemical fertilizers in 
their orchards. There are two reasons for this. 
First, the soil as a rule is well supplied with such 
mineral ingredients as are required for tree and fruit 
growth, and only needs frequent stirring to make it 
available; second, for land deficient in humus it has 
been found that there is nothing equal to cow peas 
and Red clover, both of which grow well here. It is 
possible that nevertheless quite a good many of the 
large commercial growers would buy chemical ferti¬ 
lizers, especially for the improvement of certain por¬ 
tions of their orchards which are not doing as well as 
the rest, if they were financially easy. But the re¬ 
ported crop failures during the past eight or 10 years, 
caused by late Spring frosts and freezes, compels them 
to practice economy and hence they will go to no ex¬ 
pense not considered absolutely necessary. It is my 
opinion that some demand for commercial fertilizers 
will spring up after we make a few paying crops of 
apples, but so long as failures continue the growers 
will not only abstain from investing in them, but also 
fail to take such care of their orchards as would in 
the long run bring about best results. The truth is 
the apple growers, not only in the Ozarks, but the 
Central West generally, are somewhat discouraged, 
and some of them have come to believe that the ele¬ 
ments have a special grudge against them. We can 
grow the trees and have an abundance of buds and 
blossoms every year, but just about the time the fruit 
begins to set a frost or a freeze comes along and scat¬ 
ters our hopes to the four winds. Never in the history 
of the State did Missouri have as good prospects for 
a bumper fruit crop as we had this year up to the 
rime of that blizzard, which struck us April 25, after 
90 per cent of the trees had bloomed and set their 
fruit, and to have it cut down to 10 per cent and from 
that to nothing was enough to discourage even those 
who are generally regarded as most optimistic in the 
noble calling of horticulture. Louis erb. 
Missouri. 
EXPERIENCES OF CITY FARMERS. 
“Back to the farm !” is the cry just now. No doubt 
there are some town people who will heed this cry and 
do fairly well. Others know nothing of farm life, but 
will hear only music in this call. The discord may 
reach them too late. We want to see the lonely places 
filled up, but not with misfits. There should be printed 
something besides the stories of great success, and the 
following notes of actual experience are timely. 
In most of our large towns and cities there is a 
rapidly growing class of people whose ambition it is 
to get away from the city and engage in some branch 
of agriculture. As they work from day to day in stuffy 
office or noisy shop the contrast between the country 
as they know it and their town environment makes 
their present life and occupation most distasteful to 
them. Their hearts fairly ache for a change from their 
close, shut-in life. In most cases these hope-to-be- 
farmers have absolutely no practical experience in 
farm work. They may have raised a few vegetables or 
kept a few hens on the back end of a suburban lot, 
but their sole opportunity to acquire real experience is 
limited to the few weeks’ vacation they spend each 
Summer on the farm of some relative, or at some coun¬ 
try boarding-house. In the most sacred corner of their 
hearts these town dwellers cherish a fond desire some 
day to own a little farm where they can retire from 
the bustle of business and live in peace and comfort, 
happy in the possession of the thing to them most dear 
—an ideal home. Every story of the success of some 
ex-city man they read with greatest interest and hope 
some day to parallel. The possibilities in raising 
squabs, poultry, small fruits, etc., to say nothing of 
raising fancy stock and pet animals, are all figured 
out on paper. In the end they develop a fine confidence 
in their ability to move on to a farm and “make it go.” 
How very often is the result a real tragedy! 
It is not my purpose to discourage anyone from try¬ 
ing to attain his heart’s dearest desire. With Judge 
Biggie, of the “Farm Journal,” I would “encourage 
every city householder who has a longing for the 
country, to follow his inclination were it not for the 
tragedies that so often occur in families so transplanted 
from city to country without nrevious knowledge or 
experience.” It has been my privilege to know more 
or less fully the experience of several just such trans¬ 
planted families. The rude awakenings, and the spec¬ 
tacle of lone old couples struggling in strange seas to 
keep their little barque from wreck and ruin is pathetic 
in the extreme. It is my purpose here to set forth, as 
briefly as possible, the essential details of a few cases 
so that the hope-to-be farmers who read this may know 
something of the inevitable struggle that lies before 
them in their contemplated change of occupation. 
CASE I. A HOMESTEAD CLAIM.— Two young 
men—both city boys—thought the new homestead lands 
of western Canada offered the best inducements in 
farming to young men with no hindering responsi¬ 
bilities. They went West, and after several years of 
the very hardest kind of work, discouragements and 
hardships of pioneer life, such as only enthusiasm and 
youth could endure, they proved their claim and got 
title to their land. This land cost them practically 
nothing in actual cash, yet the money they spent to 
get out there, get their house and other necessary 
buildings built, stock the farm, get the land in shape 
to work, and their living expenses while waiting for the 
land to produce a crop, would have more than bought 
them a comfortable, well-fenced farm in some long-set¬ 
tled community, with all the conveniences of civiliza¬ 
tion close at hand. All they have got for their money 
and labor is a very fertile farm that produces bountiful 
crops, but in a country of no roads, miles and miles 
from a market, neighbors a mile apart, doctor 40 miles 
away, etc. A very romantic country to read about, but 
very prosaic to live in. 
CASE II. THE SPOKANE ORCHARD COUN¬ 
TRY.—An acquaintance of mine became interested in 
the Spokane apple country that is being so thoroughly 
advertised all over the country just now by the large 
exhibits of fine apples and attractive literature. He 
was to make a modest payment on the land and the 
rest on instalments. (The company intimated that the 
proceeds from the fruit would, after a few years, take 
care of all latter payments.) The orchard company 
was to take care of the trees, prune, spray, and culti¬ 
vate them for a small fee per tree. The trees on his 
land were five years old. He could, if he cared to, 
grow crops between the trees while they were small. 
The soil was deep and rich and the outlook was very 
promising. Here is the result: He raised a fine crop 
of potatoes—but so did every one else thereabouts, and 
there was no sale for them, so he lost about $175. 
September 17, 
Several acres of cabbage were planted and he got just 
enough out of it to pay for the labor. Some did not 
head up, maggots got a good many, and ground 
squirrels got a lot more. Owing to his inexperience 
the currant crop was ruined by worms. The work on 
the fruit trees was left to the company’s expert, who 
did not spray thoroughly, nor often enough, so the 
apples were wormy and none could be sold. This 
land is worth, according to the company, about $400 
per acre. It has risen $60 per acre since he bought, 
but that is small consolation when a man is going be¬ 
hind in his payments and crops are poor. He is now 
“hard up against it,” as he says. All of his reserve 
fund has gone for living expenses, and he would gladly 
sell out his equity and go back to town. Here is a 
family reduced to complete wreck in two years at farm¬ 
ing—and farming isn’t to blame, either. 
CASE III. FARMING BY PROXY.—A man of 
some means holding a very profitable position with a 
large city firm, wished to acquire a country place where 
he hoped some day to retire and enjoy himself. He 
bought a large farm in one of the Eastern States, and 
from time to time has added to it, till he now has sev¬ 
eral hundred acres, mostly woodland and pasture, but 
some very good cultivated land, too. He has tried to 
run this place by proxy. A practical farmer and his 
family live on the place all the time to care for the 
stock and do the farm work. The owner and his fam¬ 
ily spend their Summers on the farm, rubbing against 
real farm problems and getting experience. On this 
farm are kept a large flock of chickens, six cows, team 
of horses, and a good-sized flock of sheep. The farm 
is capable of growing all the feed for the stock, yet 
the owner always has a large feed bill to pay every 
year. He has owned this farm for 15 years, and it 
has never, paid him a cent profit—does not even pay 
running expenses; it has always cost him money to 
maintain. 
CASE IV. A POULTRY FARM.—Another city 
man sold his suburban home, gave up his job and 
moved to the cheap scrub oak land of New Jersey. 
He bought a tract of sandy land, cleared part of it, 
built a cottage and the necessary coops and houses, 
bought several incubators and brooders and started to 
do big things in poultry-raising. He has had consid¬ 
erable experience and success in the business in a small 
way, and felt confident he could make a large plant 
go all right, but he failed most miserably, and had to 
borrow money from relatives to get out of the scrub- 
oak country and support his family till he could get 
work. His land was too poor to grow the feed for his 
chickens, and the big grain bills put him out of busi¬ 
ness. 
CASE V. SMALL FARM PLUS SUMMER 
BOARDERS.—This lone couple of suburbanites, well 
past the prime of life, sold their little home and in¬ 
vested the money in a small farm, intending to raise 
chickens, small fruit and take a few select Summer 
boarders to help out. They made the mistake of buy¬ 
ing a farm with no buildings on it. By the time they 
had built a house, a barn and other necessary sheds 
and coops their capital had shrunken to an alarming 
extent. There was so much work to do to get the 
home ready to live in that farm operations were greatly 
neglected the first year. This couple had some experi¬ 
ence with poultry and gardening, too, but of the other 
branches of farm work they were totally ignorant. For 
the first few years they depended upon hiring neigh¬ 
bors to do their farm work, but that proved unsatis¬ 
factory and unprofitable, so the man determined to 
learn to do the work himself, and during the latter 
years he has worked his little 10-acre farm with Ins 
one horse, and with a gratifying measure of success, 
too. Like most others, this couple thought it would 
be easy to make a living on a farm, but they have 
learned differently. The boarder feature of the busi¬ 
ness has helped out to a large extent, but it is very 
hard work—too hard for this good old lady to engage 
in, so as the farm has become more profitable that fea¬ 
ture has been discarded. They both work hard still— 
too hard, for them. The man has told me many times 
that he works harder now than he ever did in his life 
before, but his health is better and he has the satisfac¬ 
tion of knowing he is working for himself. The de¬ 
tails of their struggle to make a home for themselves 
in the country and a living from it, would make inter¬ 
esting and instructive reading for many city folk who 
contemplate moving on to a farm. c. l. 
A “biiiquet” is a quantity of waste coal crushed into the 
form of a hard brick with pitch or some such substance to 
hold it together. In this country last year 139,0(51 of 
these briquets were made. In Germany 18,000,000 tons were 
made. We shall be driven to more of them as fuel gets 
higher. 
Why is the practical man usually a poor teacher? Be¬ 
cause he does many of the most successful things from 
habit without reasoning them out each time. No one can 
teach habit. It is like the woman who wanted to learn 
cooking from a famous housekeeper. She had no rules 
except a handful of this and a pinch of that or a taste 
of the other. 
