Tt-113 RURAL NEW-VORKER 
1053 
A Rainy-clay Road Talk. 
Defects in a Time-honored System. 
W E had hustled the load of hay into the barn 
just as the first big drops of rain came down. 
There was nothing more to do. so I just snuggled 
down in the hay, and watched it rain. And. how 
it did pour! In just a few minutes, there was a 
small river where the road had been. This was 
made possible, because the roadway was lower 
than the sides. With no ditches at the roadside, 
water must of necessity run in the road. It rained 
about 30 minutes, and I think it a very conservative 
estimate that $1000 will be needed to repair the 
havoc done to the roads in this township. And the 
pity of it is that this damage might have mostly, at 
least, been avoided. 
This is a hilly country, and the roads of the town 
are mostly up and down hills. It is also a stony 
country and, in building roads, many big stones are 
encountered. This country road building is mostly 
done with a machine, and when the road-bed is 
graded, the machine slides over these big stones, 
and there is no ditch at that point. When it rains, 
the water starts down the ditch at the top of the 
hill, and all goes well until it reaches the big stone; 
then it playfully leaps into the middle of the road, 
and proceeds to wash out a canal 
where there should be a highway. 
But, you say, anybody ought to know 
that! What is the matter with your 
road superintendent? Hasn’t the fel¬ 
low any brains? 
Certainly he has brains, and that is 
the principal reason why conditions are 
as they are. Our superintendent has held 
the position a long time, and he has be¬ 
come quite an expert politician (which 
keeps him his job a great deal more 
secure than it would if he had become 
an efficient road builder). This season, 
our superintendent is building a strip 
of county road, I think it is called. 
Anyhow, it is a road where the coun¬ 
ty pays for half, and the town the 
other half. 
“I won’t.” shrieked the boy, “I borrowed this boss, 
and I'll ride him if I freeze to death!” 
On the other hand, the orphan girl who taught 
our district school last year is still waiting for her 
pay, because there was no available public money to 
pay her with. Somebody is to blame for these 
things. We are in the habit of saying that the “pol¬ 
iticians” at Albany are to blame. But are they? 
Are not these men doing just the things that we are 
making them do to keep their jobs? Are we not 
accepting a bribe when we vote for a man year after 
year because he is able to divert a little public 
money our way? Our attitude is “The money is to 
be spent, and we had better grab what we can of 
it,” and so long as we vote for men with the expecta¬ 
tion that they will do these things, why are we not 
accepting bribes? a new york farmer. 
A Concrete Farm Storage Room. 
TJCH a cold storage plant for fruit on the farm 
as you request on page 850 has been constructed 
by N. D. Peters on his farm near Utica, N. Y. Late 
in the Spring Mr. Peters disposed of .the last of the 
potatoes and apples, which he stored in his concrete 
plant last Fall. They kept well and the plant is 
declared to have proved by its first year’s work its 
other experiment is a concrete septic tank to receive 
the sewage from the houses, which are provided 
with bathroom and toilet facilities, hot water, heat and 
gas lights, although the farm is a number of miles 
from the city. This Summer an all-concrete barn is 
being built for which great things are promised. 
The cost of the storage room for apples was about 
$1,000. Considering its value and efficiency, its ease 
of construction and first cost and small upkeep 
charges, and the quality of the fruit when it comes 
out of storage, Mr. Peters declares it is a good in¬ 
vestment. WALTER H. MAIN. 
A Light Harrow For Close Orchards. 
D URING the past season our attention has been 
called several times to the Forkner harrow— 
a new light device for cultivating or scratching over 
the surface of orchards. A picture of one of these 
harrows in operation is shown at Fig. 390. It is 
a light tool and as will be seen, is somewhat after 
the nature of a spring-tooth harrow. There are ex¬ 
tensions at the side so that the harrow can be 
worked very close under the branches to the tree. 
One big horse hauls this harrow or two horses 
driven tandem. This makes a better job than where 
the horses are driven abreast, for in the latter case 
they would be quite sure to break off 
the limbs and pull down some of the 
peaches. Many peach growers are put¬ 
ting the trees in a rod apart. We 
think IS feet is eiose enough, but on 
good strong land with a short-lived crop 
like the peach, many growers feel dis¬ 
posed to crowd them and push them 
hard. Of course when such trees 
make a fair size and are in full foliage 
a team of horses working through them 
with an ordinary harrow would do con¬ 
siderable damage, and this harrow 
with a single horse or one horse in ad¬ 
vance of the other does very good 
work, as the extensions on the side 
work in under the trees without dis¬ 
turbing the branches. 
Potatoes and Apples in Storage Room. Fig. 395. 
The Forkner Harrow Cultivating Orchard. Fig. 396. 
We have a very efficient supervisor 
in this town. lie held the office of 
Assemblyman one term. And hr is a 
politician also. To hold his job, he is 
supposed to get all the good things for 
the town that he possibly can. There 
was a certain amount of county money 
available for this kind of road build¬ 
ing. And, of course, our very efficient 
supervisor must secure a share of it, 
or he would not be living up to his 
reputation as an astute politician, f 
think it was $5,000 that we got from 
the county. So we had to put $5,000 
of the town money with it to build the 
strip of road. We sorely needed this 
$5,000 to repair the hill roads of the 
town. But we could not take that 
$5,000 of the county money (which our 
supervisor assures us he worked so as¬ 
tutely to get) unless we let our hill 
roads go to ruin. 
We are also having a strip of State 
road built. Not because the majority 
of the taxpayers want a strip of State 
road, but because our Assemblyman 
has succeeded in getting an appropriation from the 
State. lie says that it was an awful job to get it. 
It has been hinted that it is the fashion at Albany 
to give the “hayseed” representatives a road appro¬ 
priation in exchange for their votes on questions 
that will divert money into other channels. And 
the worst of it is, these State roads are proving a 
nuisance to the people who live in the community. 
As an illustration: A strip of road was built from 
a small town, up to the farm of a local politician. 
(It was a pretty poor farm, and the owner thought 
that the easiest way to make it valuable was to let 
the people build a State road to it.) This road cost 
more than all the farms that border it would sen 
for. But, when the farmers tried to haul their 
crops to market over it, they found it so slippery 
that their horses fell down, and could not draw the 
loads that they had drawn out of the fields. This 
business of “getting our share” of public money, 
just because it can be got, looks to me a good deal 
like the story grandfather used to tell: A man met 
a small boy astride a sorry-looking horse. It was 
a very cold morning, and the boy was crying. 
“What is the matter, Bub?” asked the man. 
“I’m cold.” whimpered the boy. 
“Why don’t you get off and walk until you warm 
up?” 
practicability. This storage arrangement is made 
throughout of concrete. It is under one of the barns 
and is below the surface of the ground, with the ex¬ 
ception of about one foot; that is to say the ground 
comes within a foot of the top of the side walls. 
The side walls and floor are 12 inches thick. The 
ceiling of concrete is about six inches thick. Side 
walls were built first. In them were imbedded the 
timbers for the roof less than five feet apart. It 
has been found that a span of less than five feet can 
be laid in safety without reinforcement. The lay¬ 
ing of the ceiling is, of course, the most difficult pro¬ 
cess. It is accomplished by building what practical¬ 
ly amounts to a flooring overhead and pouring the 
concrete on this. The room is about 40 feet square. 
In it last Fall were placed some thousand bushels of 
apples and an equal amount of potatoes. By means 
of the windows the temperature was kept constantly 
at about 35 to 40 degrees. In the Summer this room 
is cool enough to store eggs in, having all the cool 
qualities of a good cellar and lacks moisture. 
A number of other experiments in concrete are 
being worked out on this farm. One of them is a 
concrete chamber under the bridge of the hay barn, 
with walls more than a foot thick, in which are the 
water and acetylene gas plant for the barns and 
houses. Frost never troubles these plants. An- 
Planting Potatoes on Clover 
Sod. 
I have seen it stated that a clover sod 
was excellent to plant potatoes on. How 
is it managed from start to finish? I 
have one piece of clover sown in oats 
Spring of 1914. have cut it once, and it 
is making a fine second growth. Shall 
I cut this second growth or leave it to 
plow under? 
IJmve another piece sown this Spring. 
1915. the clover now standing about eight 
inches, nice and thick. Which of these 
pieces would be the better for potatoes 
another year? e. w. c. 
Salt Point, N. Y. 
CLOVER sod is considered one of 
the best preparations for potatoes, 
deep-rooted nitrogen-gathering 
clover plant is as great a companion 
crop for the potato as for corn. Use 
the 1914 sown clover field. The clover 
on this field will have performed its 
whole mission by the end of this sea¬ 
son. Its management will depend 
upon the soil and upon circumstances. 
If the second-crop clover is needed for 
hay, it can be harvested. If not needed 
for hay and seed forms, save the seed, 
removing as little of-the clover straw as possible. If 
you can manage to let this second crop go back to 
the land, you will probably get full pay for it in 
the potatoes and following crops. 
Two methods of handling clover fields intended for 
potatoes are in common use here. 1. The field is 
plowed in the late Fall or early Winter and allowed 
to freeze out during the cold season. I.ate Fall plow¬ 
ing is considered beneficial in freeing ground from 
grubs and other insect pests, and the Winter’s freez¬ 
ing is desirable on soil that will not run together 
and pack under the Spring rains. If manure is 
available, it is sometimes applied in the early Fall 
and plowed under, or is used as a top-dressing in 
the Winter or Spring. 
The second method is to manure the field during 
the Winter, and allow it to stand till Spring—often 
till about the time to plant late potatoes. The ma¬ 
nure forces a heavy growth of vegetation which 
plowed under in this succulent stage in the warm 
early Summer, quickly decays and provides food 
and ideal soil conditions for the potato plant. 
You should not need a nitrogenous fertilizer for 
potatoes on this clover sod. especially if manure is 
used. Phosphorus will almost surely pay, and pos¬ 
sibly potash. Apply most of the fertilizer broad¬ 
cast. There is no one best practice. Seasons vary so 
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