1014. 
1123 
THE FIGHT WITH QUACK GRASS. 
How to Battle With the Pest. 
Part II. 
OW PLANT GROWTH TAKES PLACE.—The 
principles of plant growth that should be 
known in this case are: The purpose of the 
plant food stored in the underground stem is to ma¬ 
ture the seed of the plant, and second, that the 
plant cannot make any more food for itself unless 
it can get some green surface above the ground. The 
sole aim of plant life is to reproduce itself. The 
wild flower does not grow with beautiful petals to 
dazzle man but rather to attract some insect which 
may pollenize it and thus help in maturing the 
seeds. The plant food stored in the quack grass 
stem is for the purpose of multiplying the plant 
through mature seeds. Now, as long as the plant 
cannot get any green parts above ground, no more 
plant food can he made and all that the plant has 
to use is that which has been previously stored in 
the root. There are very few plants which can make 
their food in the absence of green leaves and sun¬ 
light. The chlorophyll or green portion of the leaf 
is simply a mill in which carbon dioxide from the 
air and water from the soil is united and starch is 
formed. In the case of the quack grass, this starch 
is conducted down the above-ground ster: and stored 
in the underground stem. If the mill is destroyed, 
there is no starch to conduct. 
BRINGING ROOTS TO SURFACE.—The aim 
of Summer fallowing is to bring the roots of the 
weed to the surface and to kill them by the sun’s 
rays and exposure to 
the winds and also, to 
keep the plant from get¬ 
ting any green portions 
above ground. This 
makes the plant contin¬ 
ually draw upon the 
supply of plant food 
which is stored below 
the ground. When this 
is exhausted, there is 
nothing more for the 
plant hut to die. After 
death the roots decay 
and go to make humus. 
The tools to use after 
the plow in keeping the 
quack grass down are 
the spring-tooth harrow 
and the barley fork. Do 
not use the disk har¬ 
row. It cuts the roots 
up line, and we have 
seen before why one of 
these pieces of roots 
having a bud on it will 
grow again. The spring- 
tooth harrow serves two 
purposes, it rakes the 
roots out where they 
can he gathered up in 
piles with a barley fork, 
and it keeps the green 
parts from developing 
above ground. 
COMPLETING THE WORK.—The remainder of 
this season and next season will surely eradicate the 
quack grass in W. M. J.’s orchard, that is, between 
the rows of trees. He should go over the orchard 
carefully every little while, and hoe the quack grass 
out that is around the trees. i. j. mathews. 
ENTERING THE EGG CONTEST. 
AN you tell me why some of the poultry keepers— 
particularly those who claim most for their stock 
as layers—do not enter one of the egg-laying con¬ 
tests') J. K. L. 
“I/e is of age—ask him!” We can think of no 
better way of finding out. The R. N.-Y. is not a 
mind reader and we find that some knowledge of 
mind-reading is necessary in order to obtain some 
kinds of information. Various l’easons have been 
given us. 1. The cost. At Storrs, entrance fees for 
10 birds are $20. We think that if a man is to con¬ 
tinue in the poultry business and claim to sell pedi¬ 
greed utility stock, $2 per lien is a small price to pay 
lor a certified record. 2. Hens do not have suitable 
care. Many breeders claim that the success of their 
hens is due to the personal care which can only be 
given them at home. That is probably true, but the 
buyers cannot take this personal care along with 
the hen. We think the average buyer wants to know 
what the hen can do out in a fair contest with other 
hens. When a man buys a motor car he judges it 
by its work out on the regular streets and roads, not 
on some private track where the conditions are ideal. 
Very likely if we were to get at the real reason we 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
should find that a good many hen men, like other 
characters of history, “fear to put it to the test.” 
It is very much safer to rely upon private claims or 
upon some particular “system” for praising the 
stock. Suppose some man who for years has claimed 
superiority for his stock were to select 10 hens and 
enter them in a contest. If they made a good rec¬ 
ord all his claims would he officially corroborated 
and it would be impossible for him to obtain a higher 
endorsement. On the other hand suppose the 10 
hens flattened out and made but a poor record. 
There might be a dozen fair reasons for it. yet the 
record would stick like a leech to the large stories 
which the hen man had been telling! We think the 
time is coming when these egg-laying contests will 
play as large a part in the reputation and sale of 
utility poultry as the official milk and butter tests 
now do in the sale of cattle. 
THE STOREKEEPER’S SIDE. 
T is our desire to give all sides of a public question 
a fair hearing. Since parcel post was started there 
have been many letters about tbe middleman and 
the country store-keeper, most of them arguing that 
the latter is not needed. It is fair to give the store¬ 
keeper’s side as we do in the following letter. This 
will end the discussion, as all the arguments have now 
been presented. 
THE FARMER’S DISADVANTAGES.—May I 
have the space to present my version of C’s reply, 
page 9S7, to my letter on page 830. It is not my wish 
to start an argument, but I do desire to make very 
plain the facts, and as anyone without prejudice can 
readily see if he will but stop to reason, before mak¬ 
ing wild assertions about a business he has not even 
had a rudimentary experience in. The trouble with 
the farmer is he has had to fight his own battles 
with droughts, floods, cyclones, fire, with every con¬ 
ceivable kind of plant and animal disease, tree 
agents, and gold-brick men. At the end of the sea¬ 
son he hauled to market (often many miles over im¬ 
passable roads), what he was able to salvage of his 
year’s endeavors and received what the buyer chose 
to offer, in fact, the 35-cent dollar. After paying in¬ 
terest, taxes, insurance, hired help, doctor bills and 
“forty-eleven” other bills, he applied what was left 
(provided there was any) on the merchant’s bill for 
goods he had purchased at the merchant’s own price. 
Many generations of this sort of existence without 
the broadening influence that has come with plenty 
of good reading, rural delivery, telephone, good 
roads, etc., has produced a race that, as a class, is 
resourceful and independent, but also predjiuliced 
and penurious, bordering on narrow-mindedness. I 
know, for I am one of them, hence they were ripe 
when the mail-order houses opened up their cam¬ 
paign and had no compunction in kicking the mer¬ 
chant’s foot off their neck, notwithstanding they 
owed him for value received, and every dollar they 
sent away was gone for keeps. Eventually the store¬ 
keeper must curtail his stock in proportion, thus 
making a poorer selection of goods, from which to 
choose his immediate, daily necessities and injuring 
the community generally. What would any town 
be with the much-abused store obliterated? 
THE STORE-KEEPER AND CATALOGUES.—C 
suggests we keep catalogues from which nine out of 
10 would be glad to avail themselves, paying us a 
small profit. I have been doing this for some time, 
and in order to encourage people to use this method 
have sold at the smallest profit consistent, but the 
thorn in this fine theory is that only about one in 
30 will avail themselves of the opportunity. Approx¬ 
imately one in one thousand will pay with order; 
about one out of 10 will “come across” when they 
get the goods. Therefore, may I ask how we can be 
expected to cope with the city establishment that has 
your money before they ship your goods? Mind you, 
the bulk of your order comes direct from factory, 
not from their stock, so they are out nothing for 
cartage, freight, interest on investment or insur¬ 
ance, besides, their volume of business enables them 
to buy as jobbers while we must buy of jobbers. 
CASH BUYING.—There are a few merchants so 
situated they have a monopoly on their line, and 
can demand spot cash, but the average have just so 
many customers, and the limits of territory are such 
he can draw no more. It is imperative he retain 
these customers in order to keep business moving. 
It is inevitable he take some chances; for instance, 
an honest, industrious fellow purchases or works a 
farm. You give him credit against the sale of his 
produce. Through no fault of his crops fail or 
prices are low, barn burns or there is sickness in the 
family. You are compelled to carry him another 
year or lose his trade for all future time. Or on 
the other hand, a wealthy farmer will run up a 
large account, and then become indifferent as to pay¬ 
ment, while if you are persistent with your state¬ 
ments he will get sore 
and trade elsewhere. I 
presume this is what 
our brother terms a no¬ 
good business system. 
Will he give a remedy? 
POOR CREDITS.— 
Practically every one 
can tell us how to run 
a store, but mighty few 
have the courage of 
their convictions to put 
their theory into prac¬ 
tice. It is not just the 
dead beat that adds the 
tax, for we can usually 
protect ourselves against 
them, but also the 
worthy, but unfortun¬ 
ate, and those who are 
able to pay but don’t; 
also the uncertainty and 
long intervals of farm 
returns, and the fact 
customers will not ob¬ 
serve the same consider¬ 
ation in meeting the 
store obligations that 
they will of a bank. 
It is unfair to compare 
the country mercantile 
with the banking busi¬ 
ness. Contrary to C’s 
assertion, the suckers 
do eat their way 
through the supposedly impregnable banking system 
to the tune of many millions yearly. We all know 
of some who have lost their life savings, and of 
banks that blew up because their collateral was no 
good. Cassie Chadwick “put over a few” on the big 
fellows. If the country merchants ever organize 
and form an ironclad cash-on-the-spot system, an 
awful wail will go up from the consumers (rich and 
poor alike) and clerks will be a luxury. It is utter 
nonsense to intimate that the country retail mer¬ 
chant can ever sell on an equal footing with the city 
house, not while he is compelled to take his pay in 
poor butter and dirty eggs at top-notch prices. You 
will always have to pay something for service and 
the accommodation. 
WHAT EXPERIENCE SHOWS.—To sum it up, 
there can be no mutual improvement in the present 
unsatisfactory mode of barter, till the fortunes and 
the indifference of the consumer undergo a drastic 
change, for we use as good a system, buy to as good 
advantage and sell as cheaply as our customers 
will allow. Nearly all up-to-date storekeepers allow 
a 5 per cent, discount for cash sales, either in money 
or trade slips. Personally we give a money discount, 
which is the most satisfactory. That should be suffi¬ 
cient inducement to pay cash even though one must 
borrow it It is ridiculous to assert “a cash cus¬ 
tomer should not help pay for interest on invest¬ 
ment and bookkeeping.” He must also pay for rent, 
heating, lighting, clerks, insurance, depreciation, etc. 
If the people will take a broad view of the situa¬ 
tion they will see that when everything is taken 
into consideration, such as convenient mode of pay¬ 
ing, etc., they are getting just as good value for 
their money in the long run as when they send to the 
city. r. c. wood. 
POLE ATTACHMENT FOR SPRAYING A MELON FIELD. Em. 401. 
