260 
M'l-iLC RURAL N LC W - VURKUK 
your thin soil. Very well, but what can you sell 
them for? 
One New England farmer did raise a lot of those 
turnips, and he scraped them and washed them and 
assorted them to uniform sizes to each sack and sent 
them to “the most reliable commission house in the 
city." They sold fast enough, in fact, so fast that 
the farmer's son—who chanced to have a city 
position, though living on (he farm—was suspicious. 
So he did up a few turnips in a package, made a 
canvass of the commission houses, and could not get 
an offer of even as much as the first house had made 
returns at. Then he took his samples to a big retail 
store and talked to the buyer, showed him the sam¬ 
ples, explained that all his crop was of equal qual¬ 
ity, that it was put in sacks with turnips all of a 
size in a sack. The buyer was interested, but was 
well stocked just then; however, would like a price. 
“Seventy-five cents a bushel.'’ said the farmer’s son. 
“I only paid seventy rents a bushel for those hun¬ 
dred sacks there.” And those sacks had that son's 
father’s tags on them and he had received a return 
of forty-five rents a bushel, less 10 per cent commis¬ 
sion ! 
Get that buyer to testify in court as to what he 
paid? Not much. Iiis business was to keep the 
store supplied with vegetables, and he would not 
hazard that and his position by talking. And the 
farmer's son knew it. 
Does it stop there? I am told not, but do not 
know from experience, and being a man with a fam¬ 
ily to care for. I am decidedly disinclined to learn 
by experiment. It is said to go as far as this: If 
you are alone, not a member of some “housewives’ 
league” or similar body, and do a bit too much talk¬ 
ing or kicking, you find yourself in a sense “boy¬ 
cotted'’ by the retailers. You get inferior goods, 
higher prices and poorer service until life becomes a 
burden. How can it be remedied? Do not ask me. 
I am not a doctor of political economy. I am merely 
a reporter. Lawrence colburn. 
DEVELOPING AN OLD APPLE FARM. 
Wo have in our possession an abandoned farm about 
20 miles distant from our home. It contains about SO 
acres, and not more than 20 acres could be cultivated 
with profit, though there is some low meadow land be¬ 
sides. The rest is pretty rough and broken, some wood¬ 
land and some land that should have wood on it. There 
are a few scattering apple trees, and the fruit seems to 
be of better quality than we get here, being very high¬ 
ly colored. A good nine-room house and a barn (which 
needs repairs) comprise the buildings. It is six miles 
to si good market and about two miles to a railroad 
station. If we went there ourselves I should stock up 
with a team, two cows, a few pigs, etc.; would clean the 
rubbish out of the woodland, save the best young trees 
and sprouts, and reforest some rough land; plant fruit 
trees and keep hens or pigs among the trees, if the 
spraying did not interfere; also try out some small 
fruits and garden truck. Would it be practicable to 
find a tenant who would take any interest in building up 
the place workiug at permanent improvements instead 
of paying cash for rent. What arvangement could be 
made with such a one, and what inducements held out 
of future reward, etc. e. s. 
Bridgeport, Conn. 
It is doubtful if you can find a satisfactory ten¬ 
ant for such a place. From the statement given no 
man could hope to make more than a bare living on 
such a place until fruit came into bearing, and that 
would take several years and considerable expense. 
For at least five years the man on such a plaee 
would have to put much of his labor into “future”— 
that is with small hope of returns until orchards or 
small fruit were old enough to give returns. The 
ordinary tenant who would take such a place could 
not afford to work in this way and then perhaps 
lose the results of his labor. In order to develop 
such a place we think you will have to hire a good 
farmer to do the work and this will prove expensive 
—perhaps more so than the place is worth. We do 
not wish to discourage anyone but having been 
through something of this sort we know what it 
means. 
FURTHER CRITICISM ON MIXING CONCRETE 
From our experience I think Maurice li Kent's 
criticism of It. P. C. on concrete mixer, on page 4.'». 
is justified, especially if cinders were used instead 
of stone in the mixture, as it is very doubtful if 
such a machine would keep the heavy part of mix¬ 
ture in suspension, Mr. Kent's suggestion that a 
mixer should be of sufficient size to use one bag of 
cement in each hatch is a good one. Iiis further 
suggestion that where a small job of concreting is 
to be done, the work can be done more economically 
by hand than to build a machine is a good one. 
but with the suggestion that a satisfactory home¬ 
made machine cannot he built at a moderate price 
I cannot agree with, as experience here has proven 
the contrary. 
We procured a piece of double-strength 1%-in'ch 
pipe of sufficient length, went to a junk yard and 
found several old bearings and a pair of heavy 
gears from an old mower, reducing about six to one. 
The ends of pipe were trimmed oft' to fit the hear¬ 
ings at a local machine shop, and a plug fitted in 
one end. Several holes were drilled in pipe near 
centre for admitting water to machine while in 
operation, an old keg being used to gauge water 
for each hatch. A short piece of pipe was screwed 
into lower edge of keg and a piece of %-incli pipe 
extended a short distance into end of pipe opposite 
plug. The drum was made of 2-inch oak plank, 
about two feet in diameter. These planks were 
fastened together and sawed round, then fastened 
to pipe shaft by an iron fiange. which is set-screwed 
to shaft and bolted to end. No. 10 sheet iron is 
screwed to two-inch oak ends with lag screws, the 
drum being about .'>0 inches long. A portion of 
shell about one foot wide is left loose for filling and 
discharging mixer, this cover being held in place by 
several studs, with taper keys driven in outside. 
AUTO HAULING SIDE DELIVERY' RAKE. 
I l*e frame is of oak and the old gear lias bearing 
on frame. 
Several such mixers are in use in this neighbor¬ 
hood by farmers who have a 2 y 2 to three horse¬ 
power gasoline engine. They move from one farm 
to another, doing a good business in laying con¬ 
crete. The expense of construction ranges from 
$15 to $:’»<). according to the mechanical ability of 
person building same. From personal experience 
I know they are satisfactory. These men charge 
about $4 per day for their own time and machine 
and $2.50 for the help they employ, general labor¬ 
ers' wages being in this section 15 cents per hour 
and board themselves. elmer j. weaver. 
Lancaster Co., I’a. 
HAYMAKERS IN MOTOR CARS. 
Last Summer, while on an automobile ride 
through Montgomery County, I’a., near Philadelphia, 
I happened to see a tractor at work cutting grass. 
I stopped my car. and taking my camera went over 
into the hayfield and discovered that the tractor was 
an automobile roadster of the vintage of 1905, on 
which the rumble had been replaced by a wagon 
body. To the rear right-hand corner of this an ordi¬ 
nary grass-cutting machine was lashed with a rope. 
The only change made in the cutter was the shorten¬ 
ing of the pole to one about four feet in length. 
When I saw this in operation there was also a man 
riding on tlie cutter, hut the farmer said that lie 
usually ran (lie automobile himself and operated the 
cutter around corners by means of a rope which was 
attached to the lever and carried forward into the 
automobile. While I was talking to him a cutter 
drawn by a pair of horses in the usual way came 
into the field, and started to work back of the auto¬ 
mobile. Before the round of the field had been 
made once the automobile had come up behind the 
horse-drawn cutter, thus demonstrating that it was 
cutting twice as fast as the same size of machine 
drawn by horses. The operator told me that he 
used ordinary air-filled tires, and in fact the auto- 
MOWINd l.Y AUTO POWER. 
mobile was a regular pleasure vehicle, and on Sun¬ 
days lie removed the wagon body and put back the 
rear seat, and took the family out for a ride, while 
February 21, 
during the week he made daily trips to the station 
with milk and produce loaded in the wagon body. 
Passing along the same road about 10 days later 
I saw him in another field, and this time he had a 
side-delivery hayrake attached to the automobile in 
tlie same way, which lie was operating by himself, 
and lie told me that the day I had seen him with an 
extra man on the cutter was the only time he had 
used a man during the season. This might prove a 
valuable suggestion to those of your readers who 
own automobiles and find themselves short of help 
during the haymaking season. b. s. m. 
New Jersey. 
DOES CORN GROWING PAY? 
. Jy°u consider it more profitable to raise corn, or is 
it better to raise other crops and buy the corn? j. g. 
Cheshire, Conn. 
It depends upon the other crops which you grow, 
and tlie live stock which you intend to keep. It is 
doubtful if ordinary corn will pay to sell as grain 
in the Eastern States. Western corn is largely 
brought inti) the Eastern markets, and now corn 
from South America is being imported. We figure 
that we can raise grain in an ordinary year for just 
about what it costs to buy in the market, and that 
we have the stalks for feeding in addition. Formerly 
when corn was cheaper we found it better economy 
in our own locality to raise sweet corn, sell tlie 
green ears and feed the stalks. The cash return from 
an acre of sweet corn would usually buy more grain 
than we could raise on an acre of field corn. In 
addition to this many varieties of sweet corn enabled 
us to grow a double crop on the same land, or at 
least to have a longer period of growth for a cover 
crop following the corn. Where one is keeping cat¬ 
tle, the corn crop should not be given up, for there 
is probably nothing which can be grown on our 
Eastern farms that will give more cow food to the 
acre than a well-grown crop of Indian corn. If it 
can he put into the silo, so much the better. 
In figuring this value you must consider a good 
many things. What will it cost you in cash to buy 
the grain and fodder which the acre of corn pro¬ 
duces/ That will show you what you must grow in 
potatoes, garden crops, or other products to offset 
the acre of corn. Then figure the cost in labor and 
in money to grow both crops. Find out how many 
acres of corn one man can care for as compared 
with the other crops when using improved machin¬ 
ery. Also consider another thing; the value of corn 
in its effect upon the ground. Where one is plowing 
a sod. or plowing under cover crops year by year, 
there is probably nothing quite equal to the corn 
crop for its mechanical effect upon such soil. Corn 
grown after a sod, and properly worked, fits the 
ground admirably for potatoes or other farm crops, 
which are not so well adapted to sod. Thus it ap¬ 
pears that this is not a general question, but one 
which must be figured out by the individual farmer. 
\\ e know a number of farmers who still continue to 
grow coni, largely because they have always done 
so. and because other farmers do. yet it would be 
easy to figure out from their returns that potatoes 
and similar crops would pay them far better. In our 
own case we gave up growing corn during the time 
of cheap prices, and have now come back to growing 
it because the figures proved that it paid to do so. 
MORE ABOUT THAT “ PROGRESSIVE SON.” 
On page in an article by W. J., are some 
very peculiar statements if they are true. W. J. 
perhaps would be willing to give some further in¬ 
formation. A\ ho paid for tlie young man's educa¬ 
tion? Is there any mortgage now on the home 
farm? Did he spend his vacations at home helping 
with the farm work? What kind of a record did 
he make while at school? There must lie some 
report cards giving his standing from time to time 
that would be very interesting. Is tlie young man 
efficient in anything? Can lie make preparation 
to grow a crop of potatoes, and grow them accord¬ 
ing to any method that the authors of the method 
would recognize? 
Has the young man a reasonable amount of 
plain farm sense? Is lie dependable, or must some 
one else look after all of the many emergencies 
ihat happen upon tin* average farm from time to 
time? If W. J.’s picture of die father is correct 
and true he is an odd one among the fathers who 
have sons who are graduates of an agrieultural 
college. The father may have reasonable doubt as 
to whether the young man lias the necessary energy 
to keep a manure spreader greased and under cover 
when not in use. The young man surely made a 
mistake in not accepting the attractive salary, as 
taking care of Iiis father is a job too large for Him 
to hold down. If that young man was good for 
anything Iiis father would be willing to lie chore 
boy for him. uncle joiin. 
