1914. 
THE RURAL N EW -YORKER 
627 
Rights of Adjoining Property Owners in 
Highway. 
lias a New Jersey property owner con¬ 
trol to the road? Can a neighbor place 
a post with a mail box on it, on prop¬ 
erty that he—-the neighbor—doesn’t own, 
rent or control? Assuming that Mr. X, 
my neighbor, has placed a mail box along 
the road fronting my property, have I 
the right either to remove it myself or 
tell him to take it away? F. A. w. 
New Jersey. 
The general rule is that the owners of 
adjoining property own to the middle of 
the highway, and, subject to the rights 
of the travelling public, may exercise 
ownership over it. In this instance it 
does not appear that there is any law 
which would give your neighbor the right 
to put his mail box on your side of the 
road, but there may be regulations of 
the Postoffice Department requiring peo¬ 
ple who live off the road and who wish 
their mail delivered by rural delivery to 
furnish a mail box and, if no owner along 
the road would allow them access, they 
would be deprived of this privilege and 
this seems hardly equitable. There is 
no doubt that you could make him place 
the box where it would not interfere with 
you and your use of the road, but it 
seems also that he ought to have some 
place along the road where he can place 
his mail box. 
Maintaining Fence Along Railroad. 
Is there a law in the State of New 
Jersey compelling railroads to build 
fences along their properties where they 
adjoin farms? In this particular in¬ 
stance, I am trying to get the Pennsyl¬ 
vania Railroad to build a fence where it 
adjoins my farm. The representative of 
the company claims their deed does not 
specify that they shall build a fence, and 
my deed does not specify either. They 
want to make an offer as to what I will 
do. But they seem so willing that I 
should make them a proposition, that it 
seems to me there must be a loop-hole 
somewhere. Can you advise me in any¬ 
way? The amount of fencing, as called 
for in the deed—that is, in distance—is 
13 chains and 84 links. How many rods 
is this? IIow many rods in a chain? 
New Jersey. w. p. m. 
Section 21 of the General Railroad 
Law of New Jersey requires “every com¬ 
pany organized under this act to erect 
and maintain fences on the side of its 
road of the height and strength of divis- 
• 
ion fences required by law, with gates or 
bar-ways at farm crossings.” 
You will note that this is made to ap¬ 
ply to companies organized under the 
New Jersey laws, while the Pennsylvania 
Railroad is a Pennsylvania corporation. 
It would seem, however, that if this com¬ 
pany avails itself of the New Jersey 
laws, it must also comply with them, and 
it would probably be well for you to no¬ 
tify the company that the fence is in 
disrepair and that you wish, if such be 
the fact, to keep stock in the field and 
that you will hold them responsible for 
any damage done to the stock if they 
get upon the railroad track. 
There are four rods in a chain, which 
is GG feet long. 
Mortgagee’s Interest in Insurance. 
In 1905 I bought a farm for $2,600, 
subject to mortgage of $1,900, with an 
old house, a barn unpainted, built about 
20 years ago, and some old rickety out¬ 
buildings, house and farm being insured 
for $.'!<)<) each, total $600. Between 1905 
and 1911, the buildings were as described, 
except rickety outbuildings either fell 
down or were torn down, as they were 
too rotten to be of any use. In 1912 I 
built a new house, costing about $3,000 
with all modern improvements. I have 
house insured in one company for $2,000, 
in another company, the house for $300, 
barn $400, contents $100, cow barn $200, 
total insurance $3,000, the original in¬ 
surance of $600 being annuled. The law 
firm that holds mortgage now write me 
they want my insurance papers to pro¬ 
tect their client in case of loss if any, 
and must be made payable to client. 
New York. T. c. T. 
The interest of the law firm and the 
mortgagee in your insurance is governed 
entirely by the terms of the mortgage. 
Nearly all mortgages contain the clause 
that the mortgagor shall keep the prop¬ 
erty insured for the benefit of the mort¬ 
gagee, and this clause varies to suit the 
wishes of the parties. You should ask 
to see your mortgage, and if you are to 
keep the property insured, you will 
probably have to do as the lawyers wish, 
but in no event are you required to turn 
over to them any more than the amount 
of their mortgage in case of a fire; and 
if you turn over to them as much as the 
full amount of the mortgage, then the 
property would be free of the mortgage. 
Rotation for Melons. 
Will muskmelons and watermelons do 
well on same ground two years in suc¬ 
cession, or must I change ground? I 
had a good crop last year. p. L. F. J. 
Walden, N. Y. 
It will depend upon the soil. If melon 
insects and diseases were plentiful last 
year we would plant elsewhere. If the 
soil was quite free from these pests and 
the soil is naturally good we should fol¬ 
low with melons. 
Homemade Tobacco Extract. 
For some years the entomologists have 
strongly advised the use of tobacco ex¬ 
tract for fighting various kinds of in¬ 
sects. It has come to be a regular propo¬ 
sition to use the extract alone, or in 
combination with other materials. This 
has led many farmers to ask why they 
cannot make the tobacco extract at home. 
Their proposition is to buy the stems or 
waste tobacco, steep it in water, and use 
this broth or liquid for spraying. From 
this have arisen questions as to the proper 
strength to use, or for determining just 
how to make a standard mixture. We 
have sent this question to some of our 
leading entomologists, asking how a 
farmer may know when the tobacco ex¬ 
tract is the proper strength. How many 
pounds of t bacco should he'use to a gal¬ 
lon of water, for example, and how long 
should it be boiled or steeped? The fol¬ 
lowing statement is made by Prof. H. E. 
Ilodgkiss, Asst. Entomologist, at the 
Geneva Station. 
“Tobacco extract as prepared by the 
fruit-grower varies greatly in its insecti¬ 
cidal properties. This is due to the 
methods of making the preparation and 
the variation in the proportion of nico¬ 
tine in tobacco. The alkaloid varies in 
amount according to the locality in which 
the plant is grown and to the parts of 
the plant from which it is extracted. 
The variation in the quantity of nicotine 
probably accounts for the little use of 
homemade decoctions in commercial 
plantings. The chief advantage obtained 
by the employment of standard nicotine 
preparations is that the amount of nico¬ 
tine is constant, which makes it possible 
to obtain dilutions of definite strengths. 
The reasons for di ‘erences between 
homemade and commercial nicotine prep¬ 
arations are recognized, and I will con¬ 
sider them under the following headlines: 
1. Ordinary tobacco juice; 2. standard 
nicotine preparations. 
“1. The ordinary juice is obtained by 
a methodical steeping of the unused parts 
of the tobacco plant, such as trashy 
leaves, sweepings of warehouse and the 
wastes of manufacturing. The density 
of the extract and the amount of the 
nicotine vary according to the nature of 
the tobacco and the processes and extent 
of the steeping. The liquid is strongly 
colored and ferments on standing. 
“2. Standard nicotine preparations are 
obtained by distilling ordinary tobacco 
juice. The vapor from the retort is con¬ 
ducted over sulphuric acid, giving nico¬ 
tine sulphate and acid. A standard nico¬ 
tine preparation contains a fixed amount 
of nicotine as nicotine sulphate and small 
quantities of sulphate of soda, carbonate 
of soda and certain organic salts. The 
liquid is clear, does not ferment, and 
possesses the distinct advantage over or¬ 
dinary juices that the amount of nico¬ 
tine is constant and is guaranteed. Since 
the nicotine preparations at guaranteed 
strengths of nicotine were placed on the 
market and were found to be constantly 
efficient, we have not advised the use of 
homemade, tobacco solutions for the rea¬ 
sons as stated above; and we believe, 
from our own experience in making the 
preparations from tobacco stems, that it 
will be more profitable to the growers 
to purchase the material containing a 
guaranteed per cent, of nicotine than to 
try to make it themselves. 
H. E. HODGKISS.” 
Oklahoma And The 35-Gent Dol- 
LAR. —This question of the 35-eent dol¬ 
lar is moving faster than any other na¬ 
tional thought. Even in Oklahoma, an 
agricultural State, the question of the 
great difference between the producer’s 
and the consumer’s prices is coming up. 
In the comparatively small town of Still¬ 
water, Okla., on March 14. grocery stores 
were offering new potatoes at 10 cents a 
pound, or $6 a bushel. These potatoes 
were grown on truck farms in Louisiana 
and Texas, only a few hundred miles 
away, and they were grown by men who 
found little or no profit in their culture. 
Such situations as these ought to bring 
the matter directly home to both the 
farmers and consumers, and wherever 
we go we find the same tragedy of the 
price to the consumer worked out. It is 
a good thing that people all over the 
country are coming to realize what this 
35-eent dollar represents, for they never 
can do anything to help solve the prob¬ 
lem until it thoroughly works into the 
mind that this condition means far more 
than high price to the consumer, but 
also a robbery to the producer. 
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