UUl^AL NliW-VUAKliK 
513 
WHO IS THE “SCIENTIFIC FARMER?” 
S OME time ago, T noticed an advertisement in 
Tiie B. N.-Y. of a young man who wanted a 
situation with a “scientific farmer.” Being in 
need of help, I got to wondering what constituted a 
scientific farmer? I think that the first time that 
I ever heard the term “scientific" applied to a 
farmer was when 1 was a small hoy. when an ex- 
furniture dealer moved on to a farm in the neigh¬ 
borhood. which his wife had inherited (meaning 
the farm, and not the neigh ho rhood). This man 
announced that he was going to “farm it in a scicn- 
Bvilding ().\ Way Aciioss Kiei.d. Fig. 1st. 
tilie manner." and straightway proceeded to run 
ihe farm hopelessly in debt. When he went "bust¬ 
ed” in a couple of years, my grandfather said that 
lit* expected it would come out that way. lie 
didn’t take much stock in “scientific” farming any¬ 
how. But practical old grandma got right down to 
the meat of the kernel: “Shucks: that man ain’t 
a scientific farmer. He’s just an old potterheels." 
The next "scientific” farmer that I remember, was 
a hoy that used to go to school with me. 11 is 
lather owned a good farm, and this was an only 
child. Charlie was a good hoy and grew up in a 
happy, easy way. lie got a fairish sort of a com¬ 
mon school education, and then took a short course 
at an agricultural school. Then he married a girl 
of the neighborhood whose parents were rather 
pinched for the good things of this world. The girl 
tally appreciated the change in her circumstances, 
and was quite ready to encourage her husband in 
Ids efforts to carry out his ideas of a “scientific” 
farmer. Charlie’s father died at about this time, 
and Charlie came into full management of the place, 
lie proceeded to fix things up the way a “scientific’’ 
tanner ought to have them. He made over the 
barn and remodelled the house, lie tore away the 
truce, and dug up the old apple trees, and proceeded 
to lay out a nice lawn with shade trees and orna¬ 
mental shrubs. There was a liower garden for his 
wife, and an elaborate vegetable garden at the 
back of the house. Then there had to he a nice 
pair of road horses, and a suitable out lit for them 
bought and maintained. Charlie and his wife were 
away from home a good many days with this team, 
and it always took the hired man about all of the 
next day to clean up tin? rig. and get if ready for 
the next trip. 
Now Charlie was just as good a man as he had. 
been a boy. He never took a drink of intoxicant 
in his life, lie didn't: even smoke, and his wife was 
not over extravagant. She probably never paid over 
$’> for a hat in her life. Yet Charlie went busted; 
busted higher than a kite, arid today he is working 
by the month for a man who is not the least little 
bit "scientific" in his methods. Of course the trou¬ 
ble with Charlie was that ho got hold of only one 
end of the idea of what constitutes a scientific 
tanner. lie lived like one. and spent like one; but 
be produced like the poorest kind of an old hay¬ 
seed. 
Another case that was recently brought to my at¬ 
tention was that of a young man who took a full 
course in one of our State agricultural schools. Soon 
alter the completion of his course, his father died 
and the boy had to take charge of a large dairy 
farm. He came to me and told me that things were 
not going as well with him as they ought to. The 
tact was that In* was barely able to pay expenses, 
although he was doing about two men’s work. I 
talked with him a little while, and I think that 1 
located the trouble. lie was producing "A" quality 
of milk, and selling it at "I.” prices. This hoy’s 
lann was located where he was simply obliged to 
sell his milk for four cents a quart, if he sold it at 
all. .So the only way that I could see out of the 
hole, was for him to produce the kind of milk that 
he was getting paid for. lie was feeding the cows 
to get the last stream of milk that was possible re¬ 
gardless of cost. I told him how to cut down his 
v 1-1 u 
feed bill and so get a little less milk at a good hit 
lower cost. Then there was the expense of caring 
for the cows. That could be cut down a lot with¬ 
out detracting from their milk flow, and still pro¬ 
duce the “R” milk for which he was getting paid. 
At first the boy didn’t like the idea. lie wanted hi 
do things right. But he clearly saw that he couldn't 
keep right on spending $1.50 to get hack $1. even 
if he did throw in two men's work for nothing, so 
he fell in with my idea, and will produce the kind of 
milk for which he is paid, until he saves enough 
money so that he can trade his farm for one that is 
located where he can sell “A” milk at “A” prices 
Now I wonder if. from what T have written, and 
a lot of other things that they will bring to mind, 
if we can give a definition of what a scientific farm¬ 
er really is? IIow will this do for a definition? A 
scientific farmer is one who is able to make a sub¬ 
stantial net profit from his farm, a money profit 
that will enable him to broaden his own life, and 
bring up a family of right minded, useful citizens: 
a profit that will add to the productiveness and 
beauty of his farm, and ultimately add just his lit¬ 
tle mite towards making the world an easier and 
more beautiful place to live in. ,t. grant morse. 
PLAN OF A BACK YARD GARDEN. 
H AYING the reputation of producing the best 
family vegetable garden in this neighborhood, 
and living right in the truck-garden district of 
Chicago, I submit a plan fora vegetable garden (see 
Fig. iso), which I believe will meet the requirements 
better than the plan shown on page 307, which will 
Pumpkin 
. _r__1 Crop _ 
T-^n. -o-o- .gs™.. o. 
_ Parly _ Sweet_ Corn _ 
Gooseberries 
OOOOOOOOO OOOO F 
Currants 
X * X X X X X 
Raspberries 
KXXXxXXXrfXXX 
Strawberries 
4- Ro t Yi~~Ma/Q _ 
/O Rows Late Potatoes 
_ Early .. Potatoes. _ 
□ DDOOOOOO 
9 Hills 18 HHls 
a o □ oooo o o 
Watermelons Musk melons 
□ dd ooooo o 
Tomatoes 
Squash 
___ _2 Rppys_L a ie _Cabh age: _ 
. Okra _ fiphLr.Qpj _ 
. P3£L Plants. _.... V...1] ' £eppers~_~. 
. Jzq/K J>ean^ __ L/rnp Reaps 
__.__ .i?<'sh_.£S_eons. ___ 
_4 ate Peas __ Early Peas. 
.Caulillower __ 
.early Peas. 
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Fruit And Vegeta hi. e Garden. Fig. 182. 
occupy the same amount of ground space. The small 
vegetables in your plan are spread over too much 
ground; three feet between turnips and beans, six 
feet between beans and peppers, is a waste of land, 
especially when there is generally a limited space 
to be devoted to the garden. If the average family 
have appetites anything like my family, the gar¬ 
dener will find that four hills in watermelons and 
five hills in muskmelons will not nearly supply the 
average table. I get all the cucumbers wanted by a 
family of eight from six hills. Squash will thrive 
remarkably well when planted in with the sweet 
corn, and so will pie pumpkins. Another sugges¬ 
tion I would offer from long past experience, is to 
keep squash, melons, and cucumbers as far from 
each other as one can get them to avoid crossing. 
Melons mixed with either cucumbers, or squash, are 
not very palatable. 
The plan on page .“07 omits some of the things 
that: we consider very important in a garden, viz., 
spinach, endive, Swiss chard, kohl-rabi, carrots, early 
peas, pie pumpkins, Brussels sprouts, okra, sweet 
basil, thyme, sage, sweet marjoram, savory, straw¬ 
berries. raspberries, blackberries, and currants. On 
my plan you will note that I have included all these, 
with the addition of two rows of early potatoes and 
an additional row of sweet corn, and have not in¬ 
creased the ground space. A walk through the gar¬ 
den is not necessary, except alongside the frame and 
the bed containing the small stuff, such as onions, 
lettuce, radishes, etc. w. j. patton. 
Illinois. 
A TRACTOR FOR FRUIT FARMING. 
I live in tin* section of \\ extern New York known as 
tin* "Grape Belt,” where the soil is mostly gravid or 
clay. Would you think it advisable for a farmer in this 
section to purchase a farm tractor, and if so. why? A 
yen probably know, there are besides grapes, lots of small 
fruit, berries, canning factory produce, some oats an 
corn for silage purposes grown. Of course, the fanes 
are not so very large, blit a locality in which consider¬ 
able farm machinery is purchased in partnership with 
one’s neighbor. Suggestions from yourself and reader.i 
would be greatly appreciated. grape bei.t. 
A N answer to the above query is beset with many 
difficulties without knowing tin* individual 
farm for which the tractor is being considered. 
There are no doubt many grape farms on which a 
tractor would prove a profitable investment, these 
b.v reason of the extent of acreage involved, and also 
th(> difficulty of getting team work done from ont- 
side at rush periods of the year. T'ntil very recently 
practically all of the tractors put out wore desigue 1 
for considerably larger areas than is found in the 
average grape farm of the "Chautauqua Belt." Then 
too they were so wide that they could not he got 
through (la* average row satisfactorily. However, 
seme manufacturers are now sending out tractors 
that more nearly meet the needs of the smaller 
farms, and that can be got through the grape rows 
quite readily. These later models also have the ad¬ 
vantage in handling, especially in the making of 
short turns. 
If the grape acreage is large enough to require two 
teams, it might he possible to displace one with a 
tractor that has sufficient power to haul a three- 
gang vineyard plow, and that can he handled readily 
in turning in the alleys and at the ends of the rows. 
If three horses are necessary for the work if is very 
doubtful that a tractor can be substituted, as there 
are certain phases, such as horse-hoeing and hauling 
to the cars that will require horse power. It may he 
that later invention will turn out a horse-hoe attach¬ 
ment, that can l»e adjusted to tin* tractor. If in ad¬ 
dition to grapes the farm consists of tree fruits, and 
grain crops are grown in considerable amounts a 
tractor might prove very satisfactory. 
A SMALL BEET PULP DRIER. 
I would like some information regarding the dried 
licet pulp business. My reason for asking, about this 
business, and the process of drying beets, is that 1 
thought I might be able to start a small business here, 
to supply local trade. In that way I might create a 
demand and secure a fair price for a vegetable that 
is now used in a limited way, ami not very profitable to 
the grower. Eight adjoining my farm, which lies just 
outside the village limits, is a medicine factory that 
has not been in use for nine or 10 years, but is nicely 
equipped. In connection with this factory is a large 
“drier” that was used to dry out the plant, from which 
the medicine was obtained. It is the “drier" that gave 
me the idea that it might he utilized, profitably, in tin* 
manufacture of dried beet pulp. If you cun give me 
an idea of the process used I can tell whether or not 
this thing can be made of any use. w. j. r. 
Sugar beet factories use the beet pulp after tin* sugar 
has been extracted and first press it in order to remove 
a part of the water and finally put it into a drier con¬ 
structed for this purpose and dry by use of steam. It 
would be absolutely impossible for W. ,T. I*, to make 
dried beet pulp in the way lie lias in mind for the fol¬ 
lowing reasons: Sugar beets contain approximately 2(1% 
water, consequently in order to make a ton of tin* dry 
pulp, it would be necessary for him to use at least live 
tons of beets. Dried beet pulp sells on tin* average for 
$20 per ton. lie would then have to secure the fresh 
beets at considerably less than $4 per ton in order to 
pay for the cost of slicing and drying. The sugar fae- 
A “Dumpling” White Wyandotte. Fig. 183. 
Slir Intel 213 eggs in 330 days. See Hope 1'iiriii Notes, page .‘> 21 ;. 
torics are now contracting for sugar beets for next 
season at $G per ton delivered at the factory; it will 
therefore be apparent that it is only possible to make 
dried beet pulp when the pulp costs little or nothing. 
A. J. P. 
