1910. 
THK RURAL NEW-VORKER 
©30 
STRUGGLES FOR A FARM. 
No. I. 
Under tills heading we shall print from time to time 
brief statements from people who have worked to win a 
farm. There are many such. Some of them take poor 
land, without capital, and win out by sheer bulldog per¬ 
severance and good planning. Their stories will help us 
all. The first one comes from New England. We do not 
want great stories of large success, but plain statements 
of common struggles. 
We are rather young in the business, having bought 
this place V /2 year ago. It is a farm of 1(>4 acres, of 
which '80 acres are tillable land, the rest in wood and 
Irtish. The land was in the worst rundown condition, 
and you know what it means to build up land that is 
deficient in almost everything required 
to grow a crop. The buildings on the 
place are in first class repair, having been 
owned by a city man for over two 
years before we bought it. He spent a 
great deal of money to fix up the house, 
and also to have the barns and the whole 
place look nice. But he never farmed 
the land, and the same did the farmer 
before him for the last 10 years. Now 
you see, that was a pretty hard proposi¬ 
tion for 11 s. We came here with six 
cows and two horses, but how to get rid 
of our milk was a problem. We did not 
like the idea of making butter, and so 
after we got settled down early in Apnl 
of last year, we started to sell our milk 
at retail trade in Attleboro, four miles 
distant. It was a very small beginning, 
only about nine quarts the first few days. 
But the business kept on growing, and 
now, after about 15 months, we are able 
to sell about 180 quarts a day and the 
prospects are about 100 quarts more every year. In 
order to make that much milk, we had to buy more 
cows, and buy milk bottles and utensils, which took 
all our available cash. Besides that the farm did not 
raise enough feed, and we had to buy a lot of it last 
Winter. The feeding problem is much improved al¬ 
ready, having produced enough this season to feed 18 
cows, three horses, a bull and a two-year-old heifer 
calf. 
You can imagine that we read articles about “how 
to build up worn-out soils’’ with great interest, be¬ 
cause none is more worn-out than ours. It takes lots 
of time and money to restore fertility to worn-out 
lrnd, and we are here to solve the problem, it is 
surprising how much worn-out land there is around 
here and in fact all over 
New England. Most of 
the farmers around here 
are either too old or too 
poor to improve their 
land much, and so every 
year the crops they cut 
get smaller and weeds 
and brush come nearer 
and nearer to the house. 
A good many use high- 
grade fertilizer to grow 
their crops, but my be¬ 
lief is that if there is not 
enough vegetable matter 
put back into the land it 
will slowly but surely go 
backward. Massachusetts 
farmers are known for 
growing splendid corn, 
and we shall find a great 
many at the coming corn 
show to be held in Wor¬ 
cester, Mass., this Fall. 
But the fact is, a great 
many have their land in 
very poor condition and 
we know how hard it is 
to get it back to a high 
state of fertility after it 
has been exhausted by its continuous cropping, or 
through neglect because it is filled with foul weeds. 
Attleboro, Mass. w. k. 
DODDER IN THE ALFALFA. 
I enclose a clipping of Alfalfa with growth of roots 
attached, which seems to be spreading over a small 
plot of Alfalfa I have been experimenting with in one 
end of my garden. This plot was sown in the early 
Spring on what would be considered a heavy loam 
treated with lime and hen manure, and has made such 
a rank growth that I have already cut it twice. After 
the first cutting the growth of roots began to appear 
on the Alfalfa stems just above the ground, and spread 
from one plant to another, and threw out those long 
roots, which you will see are attached to the stems, 
and where these plants are affected they soon die. Can 
you give me any information as to the cause? I have 
another small plot of Alfalfa at the side of the above- 
men tinned one which was sown one year ago this 
Spring, which gave three cuttings this year. The first 
was cut June 15 with a growth of 24 inches, second 
cutting July i, 80 inches high, third cutting August 15, 
20 inches high. This older plot has shown no sign of 
this trouble. j. v. B. 
New York. 
The Alfalfa is well plastered with dodder. This is a 
parasite which grows around the Alfalfa plant and 
strangles it to death. The seed is often introduced in 
the Alfalfa seed—some specimens being found with 
this pest. If left alone it will spread and ruin your 
Alfalfa field until it can he plowed and worked in some 
HAULING TURPENTINE IN ALABAMA. Fig. 408. 
cultivated crops. The Geneva Experiment Station, 
Geneva, N. Y., will send you a good bulletin on the 
subject. The most practical way to get rid of it is to 
mow off the patches where it is spreading. Cut .sev¬ 
eral feet outside around the plants which show dodder. 
Let the hay dry, then sprinkle kerosene over the patch 
and burn it over. 
can be made by a plumber or pipe fitter to fit your 
tank; then dump the tankage back in and turn the 
live steam through the coil, allowing the steam to es¬ 
cape outside the tank, so that none of the steam will 
come in contact with the tankage. This dries the tank¬ 
age, and it must then be taken out and spread on a 
floor to cool; if it is piled in a heap the ammonia es¬ 
capes, and then it should be run through a mill if it is 
not fine enough. The above process will give a fertil¬ 
izer containing about seven or 10 per cent of ammonia 
and from 25 to 40 per cent of phosphoric acid. 
Pennsylvania. f. b. tayi.or. 
THE CANNONBALL TREE. 
The extraordinary tree illustrated on opposite page. 
Fig. 407, reprinted from “The Gardener’s 
Chronicle,” of London, England, shows 
a specimen growing in the Royal Bo¬ 
tanic Garden, Peradeniya, Ceylon. This 
garden, often called by visitors “The 
Paradise,” includes many of the most 
remarkable tropical plants in cultivation, 
and is famous for its avenues of palms; 
it is described as resembling a huge con¬ 
servatory without a glass roof. 
The cannonball tree, Couroupita 
guianensis, a native of Guiana, belongs 
to the monkey-pot family (Lecythidcse) 
of which the Brazil nut is a familiar ex¬ 
ample. It produces large white flowers 
in clusters on the stem and branches. 
The fruit resembles a ball six to eight 
inches in diameter, of a hard woody 
texture, surrounded by a circular scar 
near the center, which marks the sepa¬ 
ration of the limb of the calyx. It holds 
numerous seeds, imbedded in pulp, 
which has an agreeable flavor when fresh, 
exposed to the air this pulp is said to have a 
W1 
:en 
PREPARING AN OFFAL FERTILIZER. 
I note on page 8S0 that F. IT. T., of Auburn, N. Y., 
has offal from slaughtered cattle. If he has a steam 
boiler 011 his farm he could easily and with little ex¬ 
pense make very good fertilizer from his offal. I am a 
chemist, and am somewhat familiar with the process. 
It is as follows, applied to his case: 
most abominable odor, which it retains for years. 
“GUFF” ABOUT FARMERS. 
A woman writer on the staff of one of our city 
papers recently visited the Long Island Experimental 
harm at Medford. From her account of her visit I 
take the following comments relating to Mr. and Mrs. 
bullerton, who have charge of the farm: “Mrs. Ful¬ 
lerton bakes and brews, cooks and works in a way 
necessary when there is no other tutelary genius to 
preside over the cooking stove. We cannot tell if she 
cooked for all the foreign laborers on the place, but 
the day we were there she was cooking an immense 
amount of material and looked hot and weary.” After 
giving an account of Mr. 
Fullerton’s life before 
coming to Medford, she 
concludes as follows: 
"How such a man can re¬ 
sign himself to the soli¬ 
tude of Medford and the 
tilling of the soil is won¬ 
derful, and you feel the 
incongruity when you see 
his bright, dark, keen 
eyes and hear his voice, 
which certainly has the 
ring of battle in it, and 
not battle with the soil 
either.” 
As a working farm 
woman I am often hot 
and weary, but never 
hotter nor wearier than 
from reading such stuff 
as I have quoted. Any¬ 
thing that fosters the 
idea that the man on the 
farm and his helpmate 
may not possess intelli¬ 
gence, to say nothing of 
bright, keen eyes and a 
voice with the ring of 
battle in it, is pernicious. 
1 he bones and offal should he placed in a tank, and Jhist what degree of dovelike gentleness is the proper 
AN EGYPTIAN FARMER AND HIS WIVES. Fig. 409. 
live steam turned in at a pressure of 80 pounds or over. 
Remember this tank must be closed and steam-tight; 
if F. IT. T. has nothing suitable, a small tank or old 
boiler of small size could be purchased at a junk 
dealer’s or machine shop, or a large size boiler such as 
is used in residences to heat water can be bought if it 
is still in good condition. In case an old boiler is pro¬ 
cured it would he best to have a boiler maker put in 
new ends, taking out the tubes. After cooking the 
steam is turned off and the tank drained of the liquid 
in it. This tankage water or glue liquor has a high 
percentage of ammonia and is very good in itself as a 
fertilizer; it also contains a lot of tallow and fat that 
would make it unsuitable for a lawn, or near a resi¬ 
dence, owing to the odor. Put it on hay or clover. 
After draining the tank of the liquid, take out the 
solid matter a::d place a steam coil in the tank. This 
thing in rural voices, and how bright and keen an eye 
may the rural person presume to possess? As far as 
this affects me personally it merely moves me to laugh¬ 
ter, but the despair of rural communities is the loss 
of the young blood, and the pemiciousness of this false 
idea lies in its effect on the youthful mind. It is like 
the destructive Codling moth laying its eggs in the 
blossom. _ j. f. c. 
Truly there is good value In a slate roof. A man up 
the State paid $50 for a 11 old railway station, which was 
Icing retired for a cement building; he sold the slate roof 
for $60, and then turned the building into a bungalow 
for Summer visitors. 
In making cement steps always leave a rough surface, 
and avoid the smooth finishing coat. A smooth step is 
dangerous when wet or frosty, and nothing ever seems 
quite so slippery as cement under these conditions. We 
have seen suburban places terraced to the street where 
the cement steps were practically unusable in Winter. 
