1148 
T H IS R. U R.A. lv NKW-VORKER 
with the farm business. Oil the farm I made two 
greenhouses, besides several beds, and worked the 
farm for 16 years. Then my father died and four 
years later my mother died ; then the farm went into 
other hands, and I bought the farm of 26 acres 
where I now reside. Here I have two large green¬ 
houses boated with wood stoves, with pipe going the 
length of the building. Then I have several large 
beds covered with canvas. 
Until about three years ago I shipped cabbage, to¬ 
matoes, celery, peppers and other plants to Buffalo, 
Oloan, Bradford, Eldred and Beading, besides deliv¬ 
ering to towns by wagons from six to 15 miles away. 
My business increased and my age, too, so my son- 
in-law, who is an operator on the Pennsylvania 
Bailroad. put up an up-to-date greenhouse made of 
r-emeut blocks, with a perfect system of hot-water 
heating, and now he raises a large number of boxes 
of plants and supplies the shipping trade. 
SOME OF THE DIFFICULTIES.—So far there 
does not seem to be anything but success, but there 
is a mixture of joy and sorrow in most affairs. It 
is sorrow when you think you have a fine lot of 
plants and the last thing when you close up at night 
you can almost count the dollars, and then go out in 
the morning to find thousands of your beautiful 
plants damped off. This trouble discourages a great 
many, and they give up the business. Another 
trouble is the little black bug that will spoil the looks 
of the plants in a very short time. There are the 
wireworm, cutworm, snail, mice, heat and cold; 
these all destroy, but can be overcome if you have 
the grit that I spoke of in the beginning. I have 
had one fire that destroyed some plants. One year, 
the 30th of May, there was a hard freeze that did 
considerable damage, and on April 30, 1903, a whirl¬ 
wind passed over this place. It went between the 
greenhouses and scooped out the glass from both 
houses. It turned colder right away, and we had to 
hustle to get the roofs covered to prevent freezing. 
One year there was a sudden cold wave, April 19, 
and before we could guard against it we lost 200 
boxes. So it is a constant watch for these different 
obstacles. One seedsman says all of these difficulties 
are the plant raisers' friend. If it were not for these 
troubles everyone could raise his own and there 
would be no sale for the plants. 
PLEASURES OF SUCCESS.—Now comes the joy¬ 
ful part, to get up early on beautiful May and June 
mornings, hitch a good team, or teams as the case 
may be, load up our wagons and drive through the 
country. Fuller’s tomato plants are known for miles 
around, and although I have no patent on the way 
of raising them, no one has yet raised any like them, 
unless they have learned of Fuller. My son-in-law 
and myself raise a good many thousand boxes. We 
retail the plants at 25 cents per box, one dozen plants 
in a box, and make a special price to dealers. My 
largest sale in one day was $40. I kept five Holstein 
cows when I came to this place, but I have already 
passed the time alloted to man, so I only keep two 
cows, 100 White S. C. Leghorn hens, some ducks, 
three pigs and my team. All of my life I have been 
a liberal supporter of the Gospel, and I firmly be¬ 
lieve this is why I have been so well blessed. I 
could cite a number of men who have had large 
farms, or the price of a big farm given them, who 
are now not worth the clothes they wear, and they 
have been just living for themselves and their own 
pleasure. I have always lived a temperate life and 
never use tobacco. I think if there is anyone worthy 
of praise for overcoming obstacles and rising from 
nothing to wealth it is my neighbor, Henry Mathew- 
son. He began just as poor as a boy could be by 
taking a few calves on a wagon to Buffalo, 40 miles 
away, and he has built up a business so that he has 
several large farms in the best kind of condition, a 
stockholder in a bank, has an auto, gave his son a 
college course, and is what you could call wealthy, 
and he knows how he came by every dollar. There 
must be some brain to succeed on a large or small 
piece of land. Alfred fuller. 
THE VACCINATION QUESTION AGAIN. 
T HBOUGHOUT New York State, as well as 
some others, there has come a renewal of the 
violent attacks upon vaccination as a preven¬ 
tive of smallpox. This treatment has been accepted 
by the great majority of people as a necessity. Yet 
the recurring outbreaks of opposition show that 
nothing of human knowledge can be so well settled 
as to defy contradiction. As a contribution to the 
discussion we print the following from a country 
doctor: 
“My knowledge of smallpox is limited; the old- 
fashioned malignant type, which, if history doesn’t 
lie about the matter, once devastated the world and 
annually slaughtered its thousands and made hide¬ 
ous wrecks of other thousands has disappeared from 
civilized countries. The type which we now see is 
much modified and can scarcely be classed as a se¬ 
rious disease. If it were not for its terrible possi¬ 
bilities, as shown by its history, no one would fear 
it. Up to a few years ago I had never seen smallpox, 
as the great majority of the present generation of 
physicians never have. One day I was asked to in¬ 
vestigate a few cases of “chiekenpox,” which had oc¬ 
curred in a family living back in the hills a long 
way from the village, and a considerable distance 
from neighbors. I visited the family and became 
satisfied that they were really suffering from small¬ 
pox, though I had to depend upon an acquaintance 
with that disease gained from reading only. My 
diagnosis raised an uproar, of course, but subse¬ 
quent events proved it correct. A small epidemic 
started from those cases, and I saw perhaps 30 
cases of the disease within a few weeks. Two or 
three of the victims were seriously sick, and pre¬ 
sented typical pictures of the “real thing”; most of 
them were only more or less indisposed, however. 
Many refused to believe that the disease could be 
smallpox, though so pronounced hv the State health 
authorities. Before we got through with it I be¬ 
came pretty well acquainted with present-day small¬ 
pox, and saw some cases that made it easy for me 
to believe the stories of its old-time malignancy. I 
also had a good opportunity to observe the protec¬ 
tive effects of vaccination, as in one family of four, 
of which the mother only had been vaccinated, and 
she in her childhood. The father had a typical case 
of smallpox of considerable severity; he was a dis¬ 
gusting sight for several weeks. The two children 
caught it from him and had milder attacks. The 
mother cared for them all, being at all times in 
closest contact with the disease, but did not take it. 
One swallow doesn't make a Summer, of course, but 
it seems to me that there is no fact better demon¬ 
strated than that .Tenner’s proof of a milkmaid’s dis¬ 
covery gave the world a boon the value of which no 
man can begin to estimate.” 
BEAR TRAP FOR FRUIT THIEVES. 
HAVE an orchard three miles from a city of 75,- 
000 inhabitants, and a trolley line running 
within 10 minutes’ walk of it. I work in the 
city, and have to be up at five in the morning, and 
start for my work at six, returning home at seven 
at night. In the Summer season T work on my land 
as long as I can see, and then am tired enough to go 
to bed, so I cannot sit up and watch my property. 
There is a class that never has any regular occupa¬ 
tion and can lie around and sleep all day, and when 
night comes are fresh and ready to start out and 
scour the country for whatever they can find to pick 
up. Last Fall I had trees completely gathered in a 
night, and in some cases fine young trees broken 
down and nearly destroyed by the thieves climbing 
into them. One day a man to whom I had sold some 
apples on the trees, started down into the orchard 
and met 15 young scalawags, each with a bran sack 
sewed up at both ends and a hole left in the middle 
in which to fill in the fruit, and then swing them 
across their shoulders and march off with them. He 
gave chase and caught one of them, giving him a 
good drubbing and letting him go. He should have 
held him and had him taken before a court, but did 
not think of that. The boy brought no suit for dam¬ 
ages, and I rather imagine was mighty glad to gee 
off as easy as he did. Now I am thinking seriously 
of buying two or three good bear-traps and making 
use of them this season, and if I do I am pretty 
sure I will get some good-sized two-legged game. 
Would I be liable for damages if I caught a good, 
lusty thief in a padded-jawed trap, so there would be 
no danger of breaking any limbs or bruising him 
seriously? Will you tell me what you think of that 
plan of inducing them to “wait a bit”? z. c. n. 
B. N.-Y.—The danger with this would be in catch¬ 
ing some child or innocent person who had no idea of 
stealing. In our own country groups of children 
often walk through the woods and fields with women 
or girls attending them. They have no thought of 
committing any damage, but if a child or woman 
were to be caught in such a trap it might mean se¬ 
rious injury. The owner might not be held legally 
responsible, but the public would be very bitter over 
such an accident. A padded trap might catch one of 
the larger thieves, but they usually work in gangs, 
and his comrades would set him free. 
LABOR AND LAND CONTRACTS. 
UBING the year we have dozens of questions 
about arranging contracts between the owner 
of a piece of land and the tenant or party who 
works it. Sometimes the tenant furnishes part of 
the capital—sometimes not, and sometimes the 
owner does part of the work. There are complica¬ 
September 26, 
tions over the contract, and we are asked to help 
settle. In making such a contract the simplest plan 
is to assume that real estate, personal property and 
labor are about equal, and entitled to an.equal divi¬ 
sion of proceeds. This will not be true of all cases, 
but it is generally a safe rule to start with. If one 
man furnish the real estate and the other does the 
work they would, under such an arrangement, each 
be entitled to one-third. The other third would be 
divided between them in proportion to the amount 
of stock, implements, money or other personal prop¬ 
erty each provided. We do not know of any better 
foundation principle for basing such a contract. It 
should be modified to suit conditions of character, 
labor or methods. For example, here is a case of in¬ 
tensive gardening: 
In the case of celery the cost of production and labor 
is so great that I think the share of proceeds should be 
smaller to the owner of the land, as the worker furnishes 
all else. Plants alone are 75 cents per 1.000; fertilizer, 
1.000 pounds, $15; nitrate of soda, $6; 10 hours’ work 
every fair day; 5,000 plants growing. On a crop costing 
as tiiis one does the proceeds should be proportionately 
greater than its cost to produce over ordinary farm 
crops. Therefore, if it costs $400 to produce, $100 goes 
to the land owner, if it sells for $400. If it sells for 
$1,200 there is $300 for owner of land, which is $150 
per acre for its use. With your idea of its use for one- 
third it would be still greater, which seems unreason¬ 
able. I am sure you know of or can find a satisfactory 
instance to advise me of. w. 
Usually we think these questions will settle them¬ 
selves on this one-tliird basis. Land suitable for 
celery is worth more than ordinary farm land, and 
the labor required to produce $100 worth of celery is 
not as great as would be the case with $100 worth 
of wheat or corn. As this contract proposition is 
complicated by such conditions we would like to 
have reports of experience showing what parties 
have actually received under such a division of pro¬ 
ceeds. 
A SUCCESSFUL FARMERS’ CO-OPERATION. 
Part III. 
INCREASING MEMBEBSIIIP.—Since the annual 
report of 1913 was published the membership has been 
increasing on an average of one member daily, and be¬ 
fore 1915, the association is very likely to have S00 or 
more members. It is only a matter of another year 
until the entire capital stock of one thousand shares 
will be sold. The stock is non-assessable and all losses 
are paid out of the profits of the association. This 
means that the shipper is never at a direct loss. The 
membership now covers practically eight townships and 
the board of directors consists of nine members. In the 
contracts which the members make with the Association 
there are four articles that are the foundation of the 
success of the association. I give them herewith: 
“The party of the first part (the member) agrees 
that the party of the second part (the association) 
shall be his exclusive agent for the sale of the produce 
herein mentioned. 
“The party of the first part further agrees that he 
will not contract for the raising and sale, or sell or 
contract to sell any tomatoes with or to any canner or 
preserver during the term of this contract. The party 
of the second part agrees to act as agent for the party 
of the first part and to receive and sell the said pro¬ 
duce at the best obtainable price, either to a cannery or 
in the open market and to make returns to the first 
party of the full amount of the not price received for 
said produce less the commission established by the by¬ 
laws of the said second party, within 10 days after the 
receipt thereof by the party of the second part. 
“It is further agreed that all produce marketed at 
canneries shall conform to the standard and conditions 
as set forth in the contracts made between said canner 
ies and the party of the second part and that the parti 
of the first part shall grade and pack all produce sold 
in the open market in such manner as shall be pre¬ 
scribed by the party of the second part.” 
In two years this Association grew to a membership 
of 500 members and did a total business of over a quar¬ 
ter of a million dollars. It saved its members over 
$4,000 on fertilizers. It sold over 15,000 tons of toma¬ 
toes at a price of one dollar more per ton than the 
farmers had been securing before the association was 
started. It secured better prices, amounting to several 
thousand dollars, for berries, fruits and vegetables other 
than tomatoes. Now, 500 farmers invested $2,500 in 
the stock of a cooperative association. On this invest¬ 
ment they saved over $4,000 on fertilizers and received 
over $20,000 more for produce than they would have 
done had the association not existed. Practically $25,- 
000 profit on an investment of $2,500 or in percent it 
means a profit of 1,000 percent in two years, and it 
means that a $5 investment made a profit of $50 in two 
years. A record and an achievement to be proud of. 
The association now has two rooms in the best business 
block in Silver Creek. Mr. Cook, the manager, to whom 
can be largely credited its success, was re-elected this 
year at an increase in salary. Mr. Cockburn was also 
re-elected president. c. R. berger. 
The number of questions sent us as to the wellbeing 
of favorite rose bushes shows the increasing interest in 
this queen of the garden. This is especially true as 
regards climbing varieties. 
