66-4 
across the continent. These eggs were from my best 
show mating—headed by a cock that had won first 
at Madison Square Garden, and made up of nine 
females that had won ribbons at Boston. Wash¬ 
ington or the Garden shows. So much for the sire 
of his pen that won first. On the female side of 
Pearson’s pen that produced these six layers there 
was some blood not directly from my farm. On 
that side there was about one-fourth blood that was 
a constant winner at our State Fair. It was from 
a line of winning stock.” 
A BUNCH OF FACT AND OPINION. 
The $1.50 Dollar. 
We are greatly indebted to the services of your 
company in its endeavor to secure fair treatment 
for the public, and especially for your subscribers, 
from common carriers and other organizations, and 
it is for this reason that I call your attention to 
the situation outlined in this letter. There is. about 
seven miles from the center of Williamstown. a 
lime company which offers agricultural lime in hun¬ 
dred pound bags at $4 a ton. Mindful of the con¬ 
stant references in your excellent paper to the value 
of lime I wrote to railroads for rates from Zylonite 
Station in Adams, Mass., to Williamstown. I find 
that for the haul from Zylonite Station to North 
Adams the charge is made for lime in less than 
carload lots of five cents a hundred pounds. This 
is over the Pittsfield branch of the Boston and Al¬ 
bany Railroad, the westerly terminus of which is 
North Adams. The rates. from North Adams to 
Williamstown, a distance of five miles, is five cents 
per hundred pounds. In other words, for hauling 
this product about seven miles the cost would be 
$2 a ton, or 50 % of the value of the product. We 
hear a good deal about the desire of the poor abused 
railroad corporations to assist the rural communi¬ 
ties. In fact we in Western Massachusetts the last 
few years have been told how eager a certain rail¬ 
road corporation has been to open up the dark and 
benighted recesses of our hinterland to the civiliz¬ 
ing influences of railroad and trolley facilities. This 
is a good example of the attitude of the railroad cor¬ 
porations toward the development of rural com¬ 
munities. While it is undoubtedly true that the 
attitude of the public in many instances has been 
unfair to corporations, it is still more true that 
this attitude has been caused by a long series 
of unreasonable and unfair acts of corpora¬ 
tions toward the public. If there is any in¬ 
justice toward public service corporations in the 
legislation of the present day, it is the logical result 
of the accumulated grievances of the public, to 
which through a long series of years the corpora¬ 
tions turned a deaf ear in an insolent attitude of 
defiance. They sowed the wind and they are now 
reaping the whirlwind. sanborx grove tenny. 
Massachusetts. 
Rough Handling of Mail. 
I was for nearly five years postmaster of the city 
of Fitchburg, Mass., so would be supposed to know 
a little about handling U. S. mails. Before parcel 
post existed the mails were handled in a very rough 
manner, which seemed wholly unnecessary; thrown 
loosely into bags and bags thrown with all the 
strength a clerk could muster, one clerk testing his 
strength with that of another, from one end of the 
long room to the other: slammed into a mail wagon 
and from wagon to ear. The same treatment was 
given it from mail car to its office of destination. 
More than this, for much of it was repeated over 
and over before the addressee received his smashed 
up package. I have seen many baggage cars loaded 
with many kinds of freight, but not even cordwood 
and coal is handled so roughly or in such a don’t- 
care kind of manner as the United States mails. 
Is that method of handling necessary? If it con¬ 
tinues, parcel post will soon become very unpopular. 
As parcels are now handled by the post the box or 
container must cost about as much as its average 
contents to prevent its being smashed en route. Why 
is the Postoflice Department so stupid in regard to 
this package handling? Why not require all who 
handle them to exercise the same care as do the 
express companies? Why not use hampers, pack 
them carefully with the packages, and insist that 
they be handled with the same care that crates of 
eggs are handled by express? I think if the Post- 
office Department should push its parcel post im¬ 
provements on that line it would prove much more 
popular than raising the weight allowed or reduc¬ 
ing rates. thos. h. mann, m. d. 
The Hired Man and Contracts. 
A Canadian farmer brought suit against his hired 
man, for violating a contract or agreement of work 
for a certain term of months. In this case the hired 
man was engaged to work through the season. 
THIS RURAL NEW-YORKER 
When the hardest work of the year came, this hired 
man simply left, claiming his wages up to date. If 
the farmer had discharged the hired man when 
work became slack, or through some incident which 
spoiled his season’s plans, the hired man could have 
compelled the farmer to keep his contract, and 
either give him work or wages for the full term. 
This Canadian farmer appeared to think that it is 
a poor rule which will not work both ways, so he 
brought suit against the hired man. The courts 
have decided that a farm hand who makes a yearly 
contract with his employer, and who violates this 
agreement, is not entitled to his wages, but is liable 
for damages, sustained to the crops of the farmer, 
ORCHARD INTER-CROPPED. Fig. 224. 
because he left. Many a man will testify to the fact 
that his hired help have left him right in the crisis 
of his work, and sometimes the man goes because 
he can obtain better wages elsewhere, or he may 
have other reasons. Generally it has been supposed 
that there is no redress for this violation of con¬ 
tract, although if the farmer discharged the man 
he is always liable for the contract wages and dam¬ 
ages as well. This Canadian decision puts the re¬ 
lations between farmer and hired man in a new 
light. They are under such a decision, on terms 
of equality in the law, so that a breach of contract 
is the same for one as for the other. It is not likely 
that a farmer could ever obtain damages from the 
ordinary hired man, but it is no more than fair 
that the two parties to a contract should have not 
only the same privileges, but equal responsibilities 
for violating their agreement. 
Railroads and Apple Shipments. 
Here is a case which will interest our fruit ship¬ 
pers. A fruit grower in an Eastern State received 
an order from a produce company for 20 barrels of 
apples, 10 of one well-known sort, and 10 of another. 
The buyer agreed to pay .$2.50 a barrel f. o. b. at the 
grower's station. When the order came, the grow¬ 
er did not have a full 10 barrels of one sort. lie 
therefore sent 12 barrels of the second variety or- 
ORCHARD SHOWING COVER CROP. Fig. 225. 
dered, seven of the other ordered variety, and 
three barrels of another well-known kind, all No. 
1 fruit, properly packed. The shipment was made 
by order with bill-of-lading. with sight draft at¬ 
tached. After the apples arrived this produce com¬ 
pany wrote that they had examined the shipment, 
and made complaint both as to kind and quality, 
but they demanded a rebate of .‘50 cents per barrel. 
The bill-of-lading expressly prohibited any inspec¬ 
tion, yet the railroad company disregarded this in- 
April 11, 
struefion and permitted the buyer to look the ap¬ 
ples over. For that reason the grower declined to 
give any rebate. He held that the railroad had 
violated its contract by permitting inspection. 
Therefore he declined to instruct the railroad as to 
distribution of goods. The apples were refused by 
the produce company after the shipper declined to 
give the rebate of 30 cents per barrel and the rail¬ 
road refused to pay the price for which apples had 
been sold. The grower then got a judgment in the 
magistrate’s court against the original railroad 
which started the freight. This case was appealed 
to the circuit court, and was tried, the jury giving 
a verdict to the grower for the full amount. The 
grower proved that the apples were No. 1 fruit. He 
also proved that the produce company was permitted 
to inspect the apples, yet the judge set aside the 
verdict, the railroad company offering $18 less than 
the amount sued for, on the ground that this figure 
was what the apples brought at their sale. The 
case will be tried again, but this statement will 
interest many of our readers who are shipping fruit 
with a bill-of-lading, like the one here mentioned, 
which prohibits inspection, but which prohibition 
is violated by the railroad. Not only in this case, 
but this grower states that the same thing has oc¬ 
curred with other apples shipped by him. 
INTER-CROP AND COVER CROP. 
A great many persons realize that to inter-crop a 
young orchard may give immediate returns, but 
they fail to realize that immediate returns also de¬ 
creases the future returns unless you use judgment, 
and give enough fertilizer in some form to grow the 
inter-crop, and also furnish something for the grow¬ 
ing orchard. By a system of inter-cropping with 
crops that are quick maturing and early, and later 
when the crop is harvested sowing a cover crop to 
turn under, the fertility of the orchard soil can 
ordinarily be kept in the best of condition. The 
picture of the tliree-year-old peach orchard, Fig. 224, 
was treated in this manner. 
The first year the ground was plowed in the 
Spring, thoroughly disked and harrowed, marked 
both ways with a three-row sled marker as for corn, 
and the whips set in every fifth row, making the 
trees 17*4 feet apart. Then we drilled garden peas 
between the trees. All were thoroughly cultivated. 
The peas were all harvested by the middle of July, 
at which time it was disked thoroughly, then sown 
broadcast with a combination of Crimson clover, 
Strasburg radishes, Cow-horn turnips and any left¬ 
over seeds of buckwheat or most anything that 
would help to cover the ground. The picture was 
taken last June about the time peas began to ripen. 
This crop of peas yielded at the rate of $18 per 
acre, while the peaches yielded a total of $31 per 
acre, this being their first crop. 
Fig. 225 was taken in the apple orchard the last 
of August. Notice the density of the cover crop, 
six weeks’ growth of ohts and peas. This is no 
remarkable yield, but the inter-crop, we believe, 
more than pays for the cultivation and seed, while 
our orchard is in the best condition. Our orchard 
receives the dormant spray of lime and sulphur, also 
the apples are sprayed just after the petals fall with 
arsenate of lead, added to the lime-sulphur. 
Indiana. e. h. beck. 
DOES SPRAYING POISON BIRDS? 
I enclose a clipping ivom the Fitchburg Sentinel, 
which I think may prove of interest to you, and also to 
your readers. Spraying is done here in our town, and 
so far as I know there have been no deaths of birds or 
animals from the arsenate of lead used. I have fed hay 
to my horses which was cut under trees that had beeii 
sprayed, and have seen no ill effects. c. E. w. 
Massachusetts. 
The clipping referred to is from Park’s Magazine 
■—a letter from Niagara County, N. Y. The writer 
states that the slaughter of birds after spraying is 
‘‘something awful.” 
Oh! if you could see the dead birds lying about after 
an orchard has been sprayed you would condemn more 
than cats. I have had two valuable cats killed by eating 
birds which had eaten poisoned insects, and the cats 
caught them as they were dying. The birds eat the 
insects that are covered with the poison, and they also 
drink the poisoned water from the leaves, and no bird 
escapes. They die by hundreds, and their little ones are 
left in the nest to starve or are poisoned likewise. 
We have seen nothing of this bird slaughter in our 
own orchards, but this is worth considering. We 
have many readers in Western New York where the 
author of this article lives. Will they give us their 
experience? What are the facts about birds and 
spraying? 
Dogs! A woman came home from Europe carrying 
what seemed at first sight a bull terrier dog. It turned 
out to be a dead dog, or rather its skin, turned into a 
“vanity box” in which this woman carried her per¬ 
fumes, powders and handkerchief. This seems to be 
the latest use for Jack or Fido. 
