1002 
ears in a string with binding twine or heavy cord, and 
hang this string of corn in the attic where, when the 
windows are open, a free circulation of air prevails. I 
have also used racks and other means of keeping each 
ear separate and in such position that the air can freely 
circulate about it. It is possible to use heat to hasten 
the curing process, but it is necessary to do so with 
great care, as there is danger of damage to the vitality 
of the seed or other injury. In long wet spells of 
weather it is possible to supplement air drying with 
heat judiciously applied and used with great caution. 
If samples are hung up out in the open, they are likely 
to be bleached and the appearance of the ears injured 
for exhibition purposes. 
METHODS OF SELECTING SAMPLES.—After 
curing, the ears from which the samples are to be se¬ 
lected should be laid out on a table of convenient 
height in front of a window, preferably with northern 
exposure. The ears should be handled gently and 
carefully to avoid shelling, dropping or any other 
source of injury. In many cases splendid ears have 
been ruined for exhibition purposes by careless hand¬ 
ling. One of the first lessons that must be learned by 
the inexperienced is to handle the ears carefully, so 
that not a single kernel will be injured or lost while 
examining the ears. It is advisable to lay all of the 
ears in one direction on the table, for instance with 
all of the butts at the edge. Each ear should be lined 
up with the others so that they are all in the same 
position. In this condition it is possible to cull out 
many ears that can be seen at a glance to be inferior, 
o! not suitable for an exhibition sample. The ears re¬ 
tained for final selection, should be grouped in the 
best possible light (daylight) and each ear critically 
examined in regular order. The writer finds it con¬ 
venient always to take up the ear in the left hand and 
when the examination is finished, lay the ear back 
carefully in the same spot from which it was removed. 
The first step is to twist the ear gently with both hands’ 
to determine its soundness and dryness, if satisfac¬ 
tory, all of the kernels are examined to determine 
whether there is any evidence of cross-pollination or 
mixture. In white corn this fact is shown by yellow- 
caps, and in yellow corn by white caps. The color of 
the cob should also be determined and should be con¬ 
sistent, i. e., the color characteristic of the variety. 
These differences in shades of color can only he deter¬ 
mined satisfactorily in clear daylight. The filling out 
of the tips, butts and kernels should be examined, and 
the uniformity in shape, size and other characters of 
the kernels and rows of kernels taken into considera¬ 
tion. If mixed kernels are present or kernels are miss¬ 
ing from any cause, no attempt should be made to re¬ 
place them. In judging samples at national and other 
exhibitions, I have discovered a few cases of substitu¬ 
tion of kernels, in otherwise premium winning samples, 
which dishonest practice made it necessary to throw 
the sample out of consideration entirely. It is a good 
plan to re-examine the samples two or three times be¬ 
fore finally deciding on the ears for the exhibit. It is 
possible that fresh examination will discover serious 
imperfections, previously overlooked. During this time, 
however, care must be used to prevent injury by mice, 
or other cause. The important requisites for the selec¬ 
tion of good samples are good light, patient study, care¬ 
ful handling and safe keeping of the select ears. 
Hartford, Conn. a. d. shamel. 
“THE CONSUMER’S DOLLAR.” 
The hunter in Labrador endures the cold and snow, 
and captures some wild animal carrying a valuable 
fur. He sells it for a few dollars’ worth of powder 
and supplies. If that man could come to New York 
or some other great city and see the price put on his 
fur when finally fitted for some dainty neck, he would 
find that a very small proportion of the consumer’s 
dollar got to his fingers. Start from Labrador and 
go slowly down the continent, investigating farmer, 
hunter, fisherman, lumberman and miner, and you will 
find the cutting up of the consumer’s dollar the great 
question of society. Part of the people you meet get 
practically the entire dollar. These are the producers 
who are able to deal directly with consumers, with 
no middlemen between. Such farmers usually live 
close to some city or good-sized town . They are 
natural peddlers, and can drive their own wagons 
into town and sell their goods. The great majority 
of farmers, however, cannot sell goods in this way. 
They are obliged to consign their crops and pav freight 
and handling, or sell to agents or buyers who offer as 
little as possible for the goods. Let us go along the 
coast from Labrador to Florida, and we shall find 
85 per cent, or more of the producers absolutely 
dependent upon a line of middlemen for getting their 
produce to market, and obliged to take what these 
middlemen see fit to hand them of the consumers’ 
dollar. Some of these people are hopeless, as they 
see no way of helping themselves. Others are bitter 
and desperate, as they see the vears going by and the 
fruits of their hard labor going to middlemen and 
THE RURAb NEW-YOR KKR 
handlers. Others see the injustice, yet are reasonably 
cheerful, as they might be in the face of sickness or 
calamity, as they look upon the situation as unavoid¬ 
able. We should have all the way from curses to 
poetry in our search. A sample of the latter is here 
given. This was printed in a local paper in Dade 
County, Florida: 
On Little River’s sandy plain, 
Which many men have tried to drain, 
Rut all who have tried, have tried in vain, 
Yet when subsides the Autumn rain 
—Tomatoes oh just grow! 
They roll the saw-grass in a wad, 
And plant tomatoes in the sod, 
Then leave to chemicals and God. 
Yet the vines spread out a rod. 
And make a handsome show. 
The drummer comes with oily tongue. 
Which works as though on pivot strung, 
Each produce merchant’s praise is sung, 
Up to tlie ladder's topmost rung, 
—To him all crops should go. 
The crates go off, the checks come back, 
Making a precious, motley stack. 
The farmer’s brain is gone to ratk. 
Of sales and payments keeping track. 
—Who gets the profits, though? 
Scour the country through and make a fair average 
of what the consumer pays and what the producer 
actually receives, and you will find that the consumer’s 
dollar is divided about as follows: 65 cents to the 
handlers and 35 cents to the producers. And the 
greater part of this 65 cents finally settles in the larger 
towns and cities. Let this go on for 25 years or more 
with the billions of dollars’ worth of farm crops, and 
we easily see what happens. This unequal division of 
the consumer’s dollar is what is eating up the real 
stability of this government. The only way to stop it 
A PROMISING PERCHERON COLT. Fig. 432. 
is to make producers realize it. At present they can 
hardly realize the truth. The way to make them 
realize it is to give the actual facts and figures. To 
that end we ask our readers to send us statements 
showing just what they receive for their produce. No 
matter whether you get all the consumer’s dollar or 
only 10 per cent of it—let us have the exact truth 
about the sale of your goods. We would like reports 
of 50,000 sales, without any effort to make them appear 
better or worse than they really are. 
FIGHTING THE PLUM CURCULIO. 
On page 942, H. E. Van Deman tells of killing this 
insect by jarring the trees. I presume he refers to 
handling a few trees in a small orchard. This 
remedy for the curculio would not do for a 
commercial plum grower; too slow, laborious and 
ineffectual. The Ohio Experiment Station took 
charge of my plum orchard in 1895, and so con¬ 
trolled the curculio with spray alone that my or¬ 
chard was nearly ruined with excessive crop. From 
that day to this we have relied entirely upon the 
spray, and have had almost no loss from curculio 
work. I am a little surprised that so able a writer 
and foremost fruit grower as Mr. Van Deman should 
say, “spraying does but very little harm to this pest.’’ 
A plum grower here (Ottawa County, Ohio) many 
years ago invented a curculio catcher in the shape of 
an inverted umbrella, with a slot from one edge 
to the centre, supported by a shaft which was carried 
by two light wheels. This machine was easily pushed 
from tree to tree by one man. A small box at the 
centre containing oil and water, received the curculio 
that fell and rolled down to the centre. This was far 
in advance of the poor old “white sheet.” The spray¬ 
ing referred to was all right, but once is not sufficient. 
The first spraying should be done as soon as the blos¬ 
soms fall, then three times more at intervals of four 
days, then once or twice more at longer intervals. 
We abandoned the jarring ppopesS .iii 1896, and have 
October 29, 
not failed to have a satisfactory crop since that date, 
relying entirely upon Bordeaux with some poison 
added, while our improved jarring device rotted in 
the woods because not needed. The spraying does 
two things beside outwitting the curculio: it controls 
the fungus diseases and it causes the leaves to be 
healthy and to remain on the trees until they have 
performed their functions. Spray will prevent cur¬ 
culio work, but it must be persistently applied during 
the 12 to 15 days when the attack is on. 
Ottawa Co., Ohio. s. r. gill. 
A RICH FARMING REGION. 
The Puget Sound District of Washington. 
Mr. Van Deman has described on page 893 a section 
of country truly wonderful for its crop production, and 
its climate, and other advantages, viz., the delta lands 
cf the Skagit River, in the Puget Sound region of the 
State of Washington, where I have had my home more 
or less during the past 30 years. But as a matter of 
course he has been led into errors because of having to 
take statements second hand. The people out here on 
this coast are “boomers” almost by nature; and one 
from the East would not need to be here long before 
having to make allowance for this fact. Our lands cost 
us $100 to $200 per acre to reclaim from nature, to 
clear, dike and drain. It is worth the latter figure per¬ 
haps for our farming purposes, for milk production, 
the growing of Timothy hay, oats and other of the 
cereals. Dairying is becoming the principal line of 
farming, and this is perhaps the best grass-producing 
district on the Continent. Yet it is doubtful (very 
much so) whether or not the farmer in the New Eng¬ 
land States, where the corn plant is at its best for the 
silo (our climate not being suited for it) needs to get 
r less money return, acre for acre, than we do here. 
Our lands are boomed up to $500 per acre only within 
the limits or near vicinity of a town, to be used for 
residence and not for farming purposes. 
Apple orchards and truck growing have been found 
to be out of place here on the west side of the moun¬ 
tains for want of remunerative markets. Yet we can 
beat the world probably for the production of plums, 
the small fruits, etc. My own little four-acre prune 
(Italian) orchard year after year yields 50 to 60 tons 
of the choicest fruit, hut is worth only $10 to $15 per 
ton delivered in Seattle to jelly factory. And 1 have 
many times gathered a half-bushel of berries from a 
single vine of our Evergreen blackberry at a picking. 
Some of these vines yield five to 10 bushels to the vine 
every season, growing wild, trailing over a stump in the 
pasture fields. Thousands of tons of fruit goes to waste 
here on this northwest Pacific Coast every year, not be¬ 
ing worth the labor and cost of marketing, j. F. cass. 
Washington. 
MUST A SON SUPPORT HIS MOTHER ? 
The Law in Connecticut. 
A mother has two sons, one living in Connecticut and 
the other in New Jersey. Is the one in Connecticut 
obliged to care wholly for his mother without the assist¬ 
ance of his brother Can the son in Connecticut charge 
his mother board? If at the time the estate was settled 
after his father’s death, five years ago, the son in Con¬ 
necticut gave his mother a non-negotiable note, and the 
mother gave the note to the son in New Jersey after living 
with the son in Connecticut, can either collect the note? 
Connecticut. a. 
In your first question you do not state whether your 
mother has means with which she could provide her 
own support. If she has available means of support 
of her own, neither son is obliged to support her. If, 
however, she has no available means of support, the 
son living in Connecticut may be compelled, under 
the laws of that State, to support her; if he is able. 
He probably cannot compel the brother in New Jer¬ 
sey to contribute his share, in the absence of a prom¬ 
ise so to do. The son may require his mother to pay 
board, if she has means with which to pay. That is, 
he may refuse to board her unless she pays, the same 
as if she were a stranger. However, if the mother 
has boarded with the son, but there has been no prom¬ 
ise of compensation, the son cannot recover for her 
board. In other words, the law will not imply a 
promise to pay board, from the fact that the parent 
boarded with the child. The fact that the mother 
bearded with the son whose non-negotiable note she 
held, does not affect recovery by the other son, if he 
is now the lawful owner of the note; unless, the 
maker of the note has an enforceable claim against 
either the mother or the other son for the mother’s 
board. If he has such a claim it would be a valid 
set-off against payment of the note. As explained 
above the mere fact that the son supported his mother, 
dees not create an obligation on the part of the mother 
to pay for the support received, nor does it create an 
obligation on the part of the other son to contribute 
his share by way of reimbursement. But if either is 
liable upon a promise to pay for the mother’s support, 
that liability may be offset against the obligation upon 
the note. 
