152 
J'H E RURAL NEW-YORKER 
January do, 
CHANCES RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE. 
T several of the large agricultural fairs 
which I happened to visit last Fall 
I saw a large display of fruit and vege¬ 
tables which were claimed to have been 
grown in Northwestern Canada. Most 
of these were of extra large growth, and 
very fine to look at, and probably very 
tempting to many back-to-the-landers, 
who saw them and had visions of going 
to the country where they were grown, 
getting a tract of free land and getting 
rich in short order along this line of 
farming. These displays were exhibited 
by railroad companies who had land in 
these sections which they naturally 
wished to colonize and make business for 
their roads and profits from their lands 
in this way. If all that is claimed for 
this Canadian Northwest were true it 
would be a paradise indeed, and unfor¬ 
tunately too many have believed the 
much told them in the past, and tried it 
to their sorrow. While it is true most 
kinds of grain, except corn, can be grown 
there to great advantage, yet many of the 
tenderer and long-season crops which 
these displays and photographs would 
make one believe easy to grow there, 
can be grown only under cover or in ex¬ 
ceptionally favorable conditions and sea¬ 
sons, not as the general rule. 
It is very tempting to the back-to-the- 
land classes, and also to farmers already 
established and doing fairly well. In 
many cases they think they can sell out 
where they are and get a much easier 
living, and make much more money by 
going to a new country which is being 
worked up to the top notch as a perfect 
country, etc. The fact is the perfect 
country is yet to be found. All sections 
have some drawback, many several of 
these, and newcomers find this out after 
getting there, in many cases to their sor¬ 
row. Any person doing fairly well in his 
present location would usually be much 
better off to remain there, and not go to 
the large expense of going t» another 
section, perhaps far distant, just because 
somebody tells him he can get rich quick¬ 
ly and easily in a few years. In a few 
cases it does turn out that way, but in 
most cases these moves are failures and 
cause heavy losses to those who try it. 
I know of many who went to Cali¬ 
fornia a few years ago with promises of 
big wages and golden opportunities for 
success. This is indeed a fine country, 
and has many advantages, yet nine out 
of every 10 I know who went there were 
back inside of a year or two. They 
found things about as they had been told 
in these cases, yet for all that they real¬ 
ized after a time that they could do just 
as well or better at home in New Eng¬ 
land, and came back, and are in about 
every case doing very well, or as well as 
they could anywhere else without large 
capital. I have a neighbor who tried the 
Canadian Northwest with the idea of 
settling there. A couple of years were 
enough; he found out the disadvantages 
good and plenty; short seasons, a sud¬ 
den freeze taking all the crops before 
they were matured, etc. He found hard¬ 
ships in plenty, successes in few. He 
came back to New England where things 
have more time. 
One day hist season, while on the Bos¬ 
ton market with a load, things were not 
moving very fast. I got talking with my 
neighbor of the next team, and found he 
had had quite an experience in trying 
new countries. I think it was about 20 
years ago he moved out to Kansas and 
tried farming there; found he could raise 
crops all right, but to get anything for 
them was another question. Corn was 
only a few cents a bushel, hordes a few 
dollars a head and so on. He could not 
get money enough to come home again, 
so went to work driving a baker’s cart at 
very moderate wages to earn enough to 
get back, and it took over a year to do 
this. Later he tried Northwestern Ver¬ 
mont in the Champlain Valley. He liked 
this country very much, and did very 
well in dairy and poultry farming, but 
prices ruled low; eggs 12 to 15 cents per 
dozen the year round; butter about the 
same proportion, yet a dollar would buy 
all necessaries needed at about the same 
rates, so that really one was as well off 
there as anywhere, and he said he has 
often wished since he had stayed there 
but it seemed too slow at that time and 
he came back to Massachusetts. He is 
at present located a few miles from Bos¬ 
ton, and doing very well raising market 
produce, especially small pickling cucum¬ 
bers which usually bring a large price, 
but last year, for reasons of unsettled 
conditions and general poor business, 
these did not bring quite half what is 
usually obtained for them; in fact the 
price and demand was not enough to en¬ 
courage a grower to remain in the busi¬ 
ness unless conditions improve another 
season, which of course we do not know. 
The above instances and many more 
of like kind which could be told, prove 
the rule that it is many times best to 
let well enough alone. Stay where you 
are doing fairly well and are acquainted 
and known ; as the rule if you can’t suc¬ 
ceed here you can’t anywhere. Content¬ 
ment is a good virtue, and worth much 
to those who have it. A. E. P. 
Massachusetts. 
Asparagus Fertilizer. 
HAT is the best time to fertilize as¬ 
paragus, in Spring or after cutting? 
When is the best time to cut tops 
off, Fall or Spring, on a light blowy 
piece of ground? Is it any advantage to 
sow cow peas after cutting? t. s. 
Camden Co., N. .1. 
There is a great difference of opinion 
as to the best time to fertilize asparagus. 
Personally I believe the proper time is 
after the cutting season. Scientists tell 
us the digestive organs of a plant are its 
leaves. The action of the sun on the 
green color in the leaves produces the 
changes that are necessary before the 
plant food can lx* utilized by the plant in 
the building of tissue. If that is true, 
then no food can be used by an asparagus 
plant until after leaves are formed, 
which is after cutting stops. Some argue 
that fertilizers applied in early Spring 
do not get down where the roots can get 
it until cutting stops; at which time the 
plants can take it up and use it. I doubt 
that. Most asparagus soils are light, and 
I believe much of the best plant food in 
the fertilizers will be lost long before cut¬ 
ting stops. The shoots that appear in 
the Spring and are cut for market are 
the result of plant food stored up from 
the growth during the preceding Summer. 
Therefore it appears to me that the best 
thing we can do is to fertilize heavily 
after, or shortly before, cutting stops and 
depend on that to feed the plants for the 
following Spring crop. 
The question of cutting tops is another 
puzzling one. In the past growers have 
been religiously observing the advice to 
cut and burn all tops in the Fall to de¬ 
stroy rust and insects. Now the report 
has become circulated that the rust does 
not live long over Winter without some 
host plant. In other words, it does not 
live until the cutting season stops, un¬ 
less it has some asparagus plants to start 
on quite early in the Spring. If that is 
true our work of burning brush, and 
wasting humus, has been wrong. Many 
growers believe that past practices have 
been wrong, so they are letting the brush 
stand to hold the snow over Winter, and 
are cutting it in the soil in the Spring to 
add . humus. We still cling to the old 
method of cutting and burning. After 
becoming thoroughly convinced that the 
new method is best we will adopt it. But 
we want to be very sure first. Some who 
let their brush remain where it grew 
find that unless they go over the ground 
with a disk harrow heavily weighted they 
cannot cut the brush up fine. If it is not 
fine or short it will drag up on the teeth 
of the weeder (used for cultivating later) 
and that will break off many shoots of 
asparagus. 
There are two sides also to the cover 
crop proposition. The cow peas would 
add humus and improve the soil, but they 
also rob the asparagus of moisture and 
prevent cultivation at a time when it is 
most needed. On the whole I prefer 
clean culture and the using of manure in 
the Fall to keep up the supply of humus. 
TKUCKEK, JB. 
A UTTLE girl about six years old, was 
visiting friends, and during the course 
of the conversation one of them remarked : 
“I hear you have a new little sister.” 
“Yes,” answered the little girl, “just two 
weeks old.” “Did you want it to be a 
little girl?” asked the friend. “No; I 
wanted it to be a boy,” she replied, “but 
it came while I was at school.”—Credit 
Lost. 
THREE 
MONTHS 
To put the big $1.50 national jarm weekly at once into half a million 
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shown above and these big features: 
Manna in the Mountains— The most valuable article on grass 
you ever read. It shows you how to build up a sick farm to a 
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What Shall I Grow This Year? —This one story alone may mean 
to you all the difference between loss and profits this season. 
Old Orchards Made New —In three years up to 1912 George 
Groh’s income from his orchard was $999.70. In the next three 
years he sold $7030.70 worth in apples. Spraying made the 
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Testing Your Seed Corn —The last word, from sawdust to sprouts, 
in selecting the seed ears that will give you a whopping crop 
this year. 
Kafir in Place of Cash —The man who grows kafir, keeps hens 
and hogs, and milks cows, feeds on the fat of the land and can 
borrow money. This is in the dry country—do you live there? 
War and the Met\t Markets —Prices paid to producers for meat 
animals dropped 5.8 per cent last October; the usual drop at 
that season is 1.2 per cent. Why? Read the answer in this issue. 
Live Items About Livestock— Short news articles for the man 
who wants to keep abreast of the times and the markets. 
Why Apples Rot— You may harvest a fine apple crop, only to 
have it rot in storage. Do you know the storage diseases and 
how to prevent them? 
And a score of other articles of value in field, feed lot, barn, 
dairy, poultry yard, garden and home. Every one of your 13 issues 
for 25 cents will be as good! 
lEe COUNTRY 
GENTLEMAN 
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