1914. 
THE reUR-A.lv NEW-YORKER 
IS 
There is no doubt that many a farmer has toiled 
for years without fair reward, because he kept on 
trying to produce something which was unsuited 
to his farm and his own powers. The man's soil was 
not well adapted to the crop. He did not feel any 
enthusiasm for it, and thus did not study it all 
through and analyze its possibilities. Then it may 
be that some other part of the country, more favor¬ 
ably situated, had come into competition on terms 
which he could not meet. In the face of these things 
a farmer cannot hope to succeed by going on in the 
same old way. No other business could stand it 
half as long as farming. In some cases the trouble 
between father and son is that the boy sees this 
when the older man does not realize it. The boy, 
however, lacks father’s experience and caution, and 
does not have the patience to go slowly and prove 
his case. He cannot expect father to give up the 
habits of a lifetime without some sort of demonstra¬ 
tion on a small scale. 
* 
Some of the fruit and truck growers of the South¬ 
west have during the past few years been selling a 
portion of their products in a manner that cuts the 
cost of distribution down to zero. When a car is 
ready for shipment, instead of being sent to some 
overstocked market center, it is billed to a small 
town in the adjacent territory, which is known to be 
in need of that particular variety of fruit or truck, 
and a representative is sent along to sell the prod¬ 
ucts direct from the car door to the consumer. 
Peaches, apples and sweet potatoes have been most 
successfully sold in this way at a cost—outside of 
the freight—of about 10 cents per bushel. This plan 
is not entirely new. A Missouri fruit grower some 
years ago, in a time of glutted apple crop, “lived in 
a freight car” for several months. He took out load 
after load for his neighbors, and sold direct from the 
ear door. Many of the people who bought never 
would have had apples if this man had not come 
to them, while his apples, left at home, would have 
rotted on the ground. 
* 
No question about the size of this problem of the 
city boy and the agricultural college. We are 
surprised to find how many city boys are attending 
these institutions. Wisconsin is one of the most 
progressive farm States, yet about 50 per cent, of 
the students in the agricultural college come from 
the larger cities. Most of these never had previous 
farm experience. Now the city boy has just as 
much right at the college as anyone else. As a rule, 
he is better prepared than the country boy, for the 
best high schools are in the cities. Yet the city 
boy lacks one thing, which we regard as absolutely 
essential either to the farmer or to the teacher of 
agriculture. That is a knowledge of practical 
farm work and a broad sympathy for farm condi¬ 
tions. The lack of these things is a handicap for 
the city boy. Filling the colleges up with boys 
carrying this industrial handicap will, in time, 
handicap and embarrass the colleges. In the very 
nature of things these colleges cannot perform their 
work of educating farmers properly if their raw 
material have no genuine farm flavor. Professor 
Wright tells us how they handle the problem at a 
secondary school. There seems to be need of a 
requirement for actual farm labor. 
* 
As a result of the hearing on the potato situation, 
Secretary of Agriculture Houston has extended the 
quarantine. After December 24 no potatoes will be 
accepted from Europe, Great Britain and Ireland, 
Canada or Newfoundland. This practically shuts off 
all imports. Shipments already invoiced will be re¬ 
ceived up to January 15. Secretary Houston says 
there are potatoes enough in this country to supply 
all. The last crop is above the 10-year average. 
He says: 
The price of potatoes in centres of origin is still rea¬ 
sonable or low and the problem seems to be one merely 
of distribution. The tests from all parts of the country 
as given at the hearing was that no shortage exists at 
present above the usual market demands, but that the 
supply in farmers’ hands is very large. Farmers as 
well as dealers denied the charge that speculators had 
acquired control of the potato crop. Farm prices have 
been low for some weeks. 
For H e past two months a systematic effort has 
been made by speculators to frighten the farmers 
into giving their crops away. Stories about “floods 
of foreign potatoes” in the Atlantic Coast markets 
have been circulated when retail prices here were as 
high as ever. Several wild men have been telling 
the daily papers that potatoes will go to .$0 per bar¬ 
rel. The market should now settle to a normal con¬ 
dition. Farmers will do better to sell out at a fair 
price rather than hold for speculation. Our own 
plan of selling farm produce is to know as accurately 
as possible what it costs to produce, and then sell on 
a fair margin when the price rises to it. 
Now that direct trade and parcel post shipments 
are developing, farmers cannot possibly be too care¬ 
ful about grading and packing their goods. It is a 
great mistake to ship culls, or to think that any 
kind of packing will answer. Here is an instance. 
One of our readers told us that in his city there was 
a good demand for apples, and that he could handle 
some good ones to advantage. We got him into com¬ 
munication with another reader in a section where 
the local market was poor, and a trial shipment was 
arranged for. This is the report: 
The stock was packed loose in both barrels and boxes; 
barrels were short from one-half to one peck. Apples in 
boxes were not packed, but just poured in and cover 
nailed on. They were good color, but were not box 
grade; would caliper about two to 2% inches. Apples 
brought $4 and $4.50 a barrel; $1.75 per box. He 
allowed me 25 cents per barrel and 10 cents per box 
for selling, and I spent two days and $1 looking after 
shipment, which was mis-routed. and selling apples. We 
found he had shipped with sight draft attached to bill 
of lading, no permission to inspect. The firm I sold to 
is one of the best. It’s the old story of the “cull in the 
package.” Three or four dealers would have bought his 
entire output or stock if goods had been right. One 
said, “If the goods are all right I’ll take 50 barrels and 
some boxes.” Barrel stock was fairly good in size, but 
most of it looked as green as if it had been picked a 
month too soon. 
Now we notice this case to make it as clear as 
possible that direct trade will require the most care¬ 
ful selecting and packing. The commission man 
would return a low price for such a lot of apples 
and then repack and make more by doing so than the 
farmer did out of the entire shipment. We must all 
remember that the more direct the trade the greater 
the responsibility which goes with it—for that is 
what the buyers pay for. 
* 
SULPHUR AS A FERTILIZER. 
For many years the scientists taught us that three 
elements, nitrogen, potash and phosphoric acid, were 
all that we need worry about in fertilizing ordinary 
soils. The other elements needed to build up the 
plant were supposed to be present in average land. 
Then came Dr. J. II. Wheeler’s exhaustive work 
with lime, and the trio of necessary plant food ele¬ 
ments became a quartet. It became evident that all 
over the Eastern States, at least, from the very na¬ 
ture of the soil, lime was fully as necessary as pot¬ 
ash or phosphoric acid. Now comes the proposition 
that we must make the quartet over into a quintet, 
and accept sulphur as another indispensable element, 
to be used in our fertilizers and manures. Last year 
we made a statement of the arguments for sulphur. 
Up to within a short time ago the scientists were 
figuring upon an entirely erroneous basis. They 
figured on the amount of sulphur contained in the 
ash of various plants, and somehow assumed that 
what they found in this way represented the total 
requirements of the plant, the same as of lime, pot¬ 
ash and phosphoric acid. Then they found that 
while lime, for example, might all remain in the 
ash of the plant after burning, a portion of the sul¬ 
phur might be driven off in sulphur fumes, and thus 
not show in the ash. Analysis with improved meth¬ 
ods proved the truth of this assumption. For ex¬ 
ample, Alfalfa hay showed in its ash .17 of sulphur, 
while with the improved method there was .28. Tur¬ 
nips showed .35 in the ash, .74 when all was recovered. 
The differences found in other crops was even great¬ 
er, and it became evident that many of our cultivated 
plants contain more sulphur than they do phosphor¬ 
us. For example, a crop of turnips contained about 
40 pounds of sulphur, and 14% of phosphorus; while 
a crop of Alfalfa hay contained 26 pounds of sulphur 
and 17 pounds of phosphorus. The Kentucky Ex¬ 
periment Station has been investigating the soils of 
that State, to study their content of sulphur. We 
shall give a full description of this work. Briefly 
stated, it was found that in the majority of Ken¬ 
tucky soils there has been a great loss of sulphur as 
the result of cultivation. Most of the crops grown 
in Kentucky require as much sulphur as they do of 
phosphorus, and almost without exception they have 
been slowly drained of the sulphur which they con¬ 
tained when they were new. A small amount of sul¬ 
phur is brought down each year through the rain 
and snow. This sulphur is put into the air in smoke 
and fumes from fires and factories, and on the ave¬ 
rage something like seven pounds is brought to each 
acre by the rainfall. The loss of sulphur by drain¬ 
age is greater than that of other forms of plant food. 
While very little of either potash or phosphoric acid 
wilt usually be found in the drainage waters, large 
quantities of sulphur are washed out in this way. 
Experiments in Kentucky appear to show that the 
sulphur problem is a serious one; that the soils of 
that State are being depleted of that element more 
rapidly than of other forms of plant food, and that 
the crops grown upon that soil require as much sul¬ 
phur as of the other mineral elements. It is now 
thought by some of our scientific men that the 
former beneficial effects from the use of laud plaster 
were due in part at least to the sulphur which this 
sulphate of lime contained, and the results of these 
experiments may be a revival of the old use of plas¬ 
ter. We shall give a full statement of the work of 
these experiments. They are not yet conclusive, but 
they do show evidence that in the future our farm¬ 
ers must consider the problem of using sulphur as a 
fertilizer, either in such forms as acid phosphate, 
land plaster, or in some actual form of sulphur 
itself. 
A synopsis of the new currency bill is printed on 
page 6. It is a complicated' measure, designed to 
prevent, if possible, the concentration of money into 
two or three favored localities. Federal reserve 
banks are to be established in at least eight or pos¬ 
sibly 12 sections. The control of these banks is to 
be safeguarded as far as possible by the Federal 
Government, and it is expected that these banks will 
become headquarters for general banking business 
in their respective sections. This ought to prevent 
piling up of money and final credit in a few favored 
localities as at present, and bring money out closer 
to local business. The law permits National banks, 
under certain conditions, to make loans on farm 
property and discount notes or drafts made on live 
stock or farm produce. The theory of the new law 
is sound and helpful. It may need modification be¬ 
fore it will work properly, but it ought to bring 
about a more even distribution of banking money 
and better opportunities for obtaining credit through 
farm property. Such a bill as this should not be 
made a political issue between political parties. We 
are glad that on the final passage of the bill party 
lines were broken down—partly at least. There has 
been a hard fight between the banking interests and 
the money-borrowing classes, and both finally were 
forced to abandon some of the things they originally 
demanded. There is now a general disposition to 
give the new law a fair trial, and both sides, while 
stating that they are not fully satisfied, generally 
agree that the law is an improvement over the older 
one. The New York Times, organ of the banking ele¬ 
ment and of the never-changing conservatives, says 
of the bill: 
The public and the bankers now accept the bill hope¬ 
fully, not because they have in any way changed their 
attitude toward it. but because the bill itself has been 
changed, in a multitude of ways, and immensely, for the 
better. * * * Just as Congress worked under pub¬ 
lic supervision in making the bill, so the acts of the 
members of the board will every day be subject to scru¬ 
tiny, and against any flagrant departure from sound 
principle the public protest will be so instant and em¬ 
phatic as to compel a return to the safe path. 
The hopeful thing about that is the admission that 
hereafter the public will take a hand in the enforce¬ 
ment of a financial law, and not leave it to a few 
rich men plotting in a private office. 
Foreign Crops. 
The Liverpool Corn Trade News reports: 
United Kingdom.—The weather and crop outlook are 
generally favorable. 
France.—The weather is seasonable and the crop out¬ 
look is mostly favorable. Supplies have increased ma¬ 
terially, but offers of native wheat have practically 
stopped. Buying of foreign wheat continues. 
Germany.—The crop outlook is generally favorable 
and the weather seasonable. Offers of native wheat are 
larger and therefore the trade in foreign wheat is dull. 
Best informed interests here predict that there will be 
a revival of foreign buying in January, as stocks are 
light. 
Russia.—The crop outlook is generally satisfactory. 
Supplies are liberal. Most of the wheat area is covered 
with snow. 
Roumania and Bulgaria.—Outlook favorable, with 
supplies of native wheat liberal. The weather is too 
mild. 
Hungary.—The weather is cold and there is no snow 
and apprehension is felt regarding the effects of freez¬ 
ing. 
Italy.—The outlook is favorable, with the weather 
seasonable. 
Spain and North Africa.—Dryness continues, and al¬ 
though there has been light rain it was not sufficient. 
Australia.—High promise has been maintained and 
our agent reports that the exportable surplus may be 
20,000,000 bushels over last year. 
Canadian Crops. 
The Ontario Department of Agriculture gives the fol¬ 
lowing figures of yields in the Province this year: 
Acreage 
Bushels 
Fall Wheat. 
. 646.533 
15,945,717 
Spring Wheat. 
. 116,581 
2,068.951 
Bariev . 
. 623,658 
18.255,958 
Oats . 
98.426,902 
Rye . 
. 118,429 
1,979,775 
Buckwheat . 
. 228,279 
4,012.418 
Peas . 
. 117,303 
3,108.263 
Beans . 
. 66,639 
1.021.243 
Corn, Ear. 
. 269,871 
22,214,014 
Corn, Silage. 
. 388,138 
tons 
Potatoes. 
. 159,661 
19.124.115 
Carrots. 
. 2,400 
592,016 
Mangels. 
. 54,568 
21,935,847 
Turnips . 
. 97.572 
41.889.894 
Hay . 
. 3,428,846 
tens 3.924,563 
