1114 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban IIoincH 
Established IBM 
I'uhlblird wrrkly by Ilie Knriil l*nbli«l>ine Company, 888 Hnl 8OII1 Slrrol. Xf» Yorli 
Herbert W. Corringwood, President and Editor. 
John J. Iiii.iav, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Dim t&ry. MBS. E. T. Rovre, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in tile Universal Postal Union, $2.04, equal to 8s. 6d., or 
ipfc marks, or 101$ francs. Remit in money order, express 
order, personal check or bank draft. 
Entered nt New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates, 75 cents per agnte line—7 words. References required fo: 
advertisers unknown to us ; and cash must accom)>any transient orders. 
“A SQUARE DEAL” 
Wc believe that every advert isement in this paper is backed by a respon¬ 
sible pei-son. We use every possible precaution and admit the advertising of 
reliable houses only. But to make doubly sure, we will make Rood any loss 
to paid subscribers sustained by trusting any deliberate swindler, irrespon¬ 
sible advertisers or misleading advertisements in our columns, and any 
such swindler will he publicly exposed. We are also often called upon 
to adjust differences or mistakes between our subscribers and honest, 
responsible houses, whether advertisers or not. We willingly use our good 
on ices to this end, but such cases should not be confused with dishonest 
transactions. We protect subscribers against rogues, but we will not be 
responsible for the debts of honest bankrupts sanctioned by the courts 
Notice of the complaint must be sent to us within one month of the time of 
the transaction, and to Identify it. you should mention The Rurar New- 
Yorker when writing the advertiser. 
W E hope you will read the articles now appear¬ 
ing on the egg markets and how prices are 
made. This is one of the most important things 
connected with the produce trade, for if the price 
is not decided by supply and demand botli producer 
and consumer suffer. Where any interested parties 
can stand between as middlemen to dictate, the pro¬ 
duce trade becomes a mere speculation or gamble. 
Read these articles and see just how the thing is 
done. 
* 
O N page 1039 we printed a note from a man who 
said he wanted a stout boy to work on his farm. 
Formerly we found it difficult to find young men who 
cared to try farm work. Since that note was print¬ 
ed the air has suddenly filled with stout boys—or at 
least boys who claim to have strength and willing¬ 
ness and a fine long list of good qualities. More than 
60 such boys have written about this position. Now 
there may be other farmers who need this kind of 
help. In such case, if these boys mean business 
it seems no more than fair to give them a chance, 
and we are ready to hear from farmers who think 
they can use “a stout boy.” 
* 
W HILE we are talking about cover crops to 
increase the humus in the soil the Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture states that last year 17,013,000 
tons of straw were burned. This burning was most¬ 
ly done in the Northwest—there being little value 
for straw in that section. A ton of wheat straw 
contains 10 pounds of nitrogen, three of phosphoric 
acid and 12 of potash. The latter are saved in the 
ashes, but the nitrogen is lost in the burning. 
Think what these great bonfires mean in the loss of 
plant food. With the estimate given above and 10 
pounds to the ton Ave have 17,630,000 pounds lost. 
This is equal to more than 5,000,000 tons of nitrate 
of soda. These Avastes correct themselves as agri¬ 
culture groAvs older. Thirty years ago Ave used to 
see the same fires in Colorado. Now they are using 
chemical fertilizers on that same land. 
* 
T IIE R. N.-Y. goes everywhere. One subscriber 
at Fairbank, Alaska, tells us of thawing out 
his frozen kerosene in order to get a light for read¬ 
ing. Another reader in Patagonia tells Iioav the 
river suddenly jumped out of its bed and ran away 
Avith his house. We have a number of subscribers 
in Mexico and one of them sends this cheerful note: 
No crops, everything destroyed by tbe so-called revol¬ 
utionists—in other words bandits. Starvation and fam¬ 
ine stares this country in the face for 20 months. 
Brother Wilson, your President, will soon have a job on 
his hands. L. E. B. 
The President has a number of jobs on his hands, 
and he is caring for them well. We do not join the 
ranks of the critics or the Avise advisers who tell 
President AVilson Avhat to do or Avhat not to do. 
Keep aAvay from the pilot. 
* 
A PPLE growers may well look ahead a little. 
This European Avar is causing immense loss in 
all forms of productive power. Nations cannot fight 
on a gigantic scale and destroy property, and at the 
same time keep up the production of food and other 
necessities of life. The neutral nations have their 
chance while hostilities last, but Avith peace there 
Avill be a rush to repair the damage and readjust 
conditions. War sharpens the wits of a nation. 
Life cannot be the same when the armies come back 
and take up the old work once more. Farming in 
France, Germany, England and Russia will be on a 
larger and more efficient scale than ever before 
Avhen the great armies disband. It will be easier 
to feed and clothe the people, because Avar has 
TWK; RURAL NEW-YORKER 
taught organization and efficient measures. After 
our Civil War the soldiers who came back to the 
farms were not satisfied with the slow and simple 
methods which answered before the Avar. Within 
a few years there was a great over-production of 
food. Much the same thing will follow in Europe 
with those crops and products which can be quickly 
grown or which represent but a few years of prepar¬ 
ation. The apple crop does not come into this class. 
Already some of the finest apple sections of Europe 
have been devastated and the orchards have been 
destroyed. Tt will require 20 years or more to re¬ 
place them, yet the European demand for apples will 
continue to grow. Here then is new opportunity 
for American fruit growers. We believe that the 
export trade in fruit after this war is ended Avill 
groAA r to immense proportions. Europe may be able 
to supply the greater part of her bread and meat, 
but good orchards are not restored in less than 20 
years, and this fact is to give opportunity to Amer¬ 
ican growers. 
* 
N OW and then Ave have a letter like the follow¬ 
ing—with no means of identifying the writer: 
You state that you have some 3,000 fruit trees on 
your farm. You must have to deal with some nursery¬ 
men. Now as a fearless, honest, give-us-the-facts edi¬ 
tor, dare you state what nurseries you have found re¬ 
liable or which were not reliable? Now^ as this letter 
will be classed as anonymous (we) don’t expect any¬ 
thing from it through Till-: R. N.-Y., hut we will watch 
the paper for facts as usual. several. 
We have bought trees of a dozen or more different 
nurserymen. Some Avore good, some quite good, some 
poor and some very bad. Several nurserymen have 
always treated us well. They are high-priced and 
do not offer “bargains.” We have never tried to 
beat the nurserymen down and have never fol¬ 
lowed the plan of buying the cheapest trees Ave can 
find. Thus far we have found but few “misfits” as 
our orchard comes into bearing. The worst case 
is a block of 25 trees which Ave bought for Baldwins 
and AAdiich prove to be a large sweet apple of no 
value in our trade. They came from about the most 
honorable man we have ever done business with. 
We have found several firms which do a straight, 
honorable business. The very nature of the nurs¬ 
ery trade is such that no one could claim that he 
never made mistakes or was absolutely sure of his 
trees and labels. Such a man would be more than 
human, and we should be afraid to deal with him. 
There are honest nurserymen who sincerely try to 
deliver stock true to name. We know a number of 
such men personally, but we could not guarantee 
that any one of them will not make mistakes Avith 
buds or labels and thus send the wrong trees. The 
man most likely to avoid such mistakes is the one 
Avho has the closest oversight in the details of his 
business. You must expect to pay for this and it 
all comes in the price of the tree. We should have 
no objections to stating what nurseries have treat¬ 
ed us well, yet there might be complaints from others 
about these very firms. 
* 
% 
W E are all finding so much fault Avith the 
weather, that we ought to think of some of 
the good things for a change. It has been a great 
season for starting the cover crops Avhenever the 
soil was fit to work. We have clover and rye in 
ever 25 acres of corn, and both crops started grow¬ 
ing at once. We used a combination of Alsike and 
SAveet clovers. The Alsike starts first, and Avill give 
a crop this Fall that Avill more than pay the cost of 
seed, even if the ground were plowed just before 
Winter. As it is Ave expect a heavy crop of Alsike 
next Spring, and that the Sweet clover will then 
come on and croAvd the Alsike out. What a fear¬ 
ful loss there Avill be this Avet Fall in the cornfields 
where there is no cover crop! 
* 
F ELDSPAR is one of the most abundant miner¬ 
als in nature—great quantities being found in 
granite rocks, where it is combined with potash. 
Some of the granites contain six per cent, and more 
of potash, and scientific men have long tried to find 
a process for making this potasli available. Many 
patents have been obtained and it is quite possible 
to obtain fertilizer potash from these rocks, but 
thus far the cost has been found too heavy. In 
several cases' the ground or crushed rock has been 
put in the market as a potash fertilizer, but it is 
not available as plant food—no more so than the 
soil in which the plants grow. Now comes a more 
impudent and dangerous scheme for working off 
this ground feldspar. We understand that some 
fertilizer manufacturers plan to use this crushed 
rock as a “filler” in making up their fertilizer mix¬ 
tures. If they can use 600 pounds or more of this 
stuff to the ton, they expect to be able to claim 30 
September 11, 1915. 
pounds or more of extra “potash” in a ton of their 
mixture. This potasli will have no fertilizing value 
and the manufacturers Avill probably take care 
to omit the word “available” in their guarantee, 
but if they can use this dirt and are permitted to 
print Avhat they call “total potash” they will de¬ 
ceive many a farmer unless they are shut off. There 
is nothing in the fertilizer laws to prevent the use of 
this crushed rock. When these laws were made no 
one dreamed of using such stuff as a “filler.” The 
experiment stations in their analyses give credit only 
for water-soluble potash but these rock-dust stuffers 
evidently plan to print in their advertising matter 
a guarantee of “total potash” which will include 
this inert and useless stuff. Tt is evidently a scheme 
to deceive farmers and right no\A r when there is a 
shortage of potash is a great time to work such a 
bluff. We warn our readers against buying any 
such stuff. Tay no attention to any guarantee of 
potash except what the experiment stations call 
“water soluble.” There can be no reason for using 
this nnv rock dust except an effort to deceive buyers. 
* 
lias ragweed any food value? If not will it, mixed 
with corn in silo, be detrimental? This season has 
been so wet that it was impossible to keep the ragweed 
down, and it will require considerable labor to separ¬ 
ate it. AV. F. II. 
E should cut the ragweed right into the silo 
with the corn. It will do no harm and, if 
anything, improve the quality of the silage. Most 
stock, and particularly sheep, will eat the young rag- 
weed in pastures, and in some places ragweed is cut 
and cured as hay for the sheep. The present Avet 
season has made it impossible to clean up many 
cornfields, and even men noted as good farmers have 
been unable to keep the corn clean at any reasonable 
cost. In such cases the most sensible thing to do 
is to cut weeds and corn together into the silo, and 
not try to clean out the Aveeds Avith expensive hand 
labor. 
* 
T HERE is no question that the little gasoline 
“strong-arm” engines mounted on harvesters 
and potato diggers perform a useful service. They 
operate the working parts and leave the dead 
Aveight of the machine for the team to pull. IIoav 
far can this system he carried out with other ma¬ 
chinery? Could Ave not mount one of these little 
engines on a manure spreader and use it to empty 
the load, thus relieving the horses? Thus far Ave 
have been unable to find any eases Avhere the en¬ 
gines have been used in this Avay. None of the man¬ 
ufacturers recommend such use of an engine. The 
International Harvester Co. write: 
Under a series of tests a dynamometer was attached 
to the spreader, and it was found that from 81 to 86 per 
cent, of the draft required to draw the spreader was 
absorbed in pulling tbe spreader and the load itself. 
When tbe machine was thrown into gear and was 
spreading the manure, tbe draft was increased only 14 
to 19 per cent., this depending upon the number of loads 
spread to the acre. 
Most farmers would suppose that the work of un¬ 
loading the spreader takes more of the total pull on 
the machine. There is, however, a groAving demand 
for big spreaders Avhich require eight big horses to 
move them. On these, the work of unloading would 
be so heavy that the little engine would pay. Can 
any reader tell us of eases where these engines have 
been used on other implements than harvesters and 
diggers? 
Brevities. 
Limestone for light soil. 
Ill-born— pigs from sows fed too much corn. 
Soils in Southern New Jersey have turned red. Un¬ 
sold tomatoes. 
Noav comes Argentina into the business of growing 
Citrus fruits. There are 2,000,000 trees already planted. 
Reports are beginning to come frequently from farm¬ 
ers who have trouble with Alfalfa dying from canker 
or disease. This is aside from the trouble caused by 
insects. 
This wet season may make the seed corn soft and 
keep it so until frost. Take our advice and keep some 
of last year’s best seed corn if you can, until you see 
what this crop does. 
Noav they tell us to make a syrup from watermelon 
juice. Take ripe melons, separate the pink flesh and 
crush the juice out of it. Boil this juice down to a 
thick syrup, as with maple sap or sorghum juice. 
People sometimes write that they cau buy manure 
that has been used for mushroom spawning. What 
is it worth? We have no analysis of such manure, 
but would guess that it has about half the value of the 
fresh fermenting article. 
Ten thousand people would start up to tell how much 
good an auto-car has done them—but perhaps the story 
of the crippled “shut-in” would mean most. It is 
a wonder for such people to be whisked about easily for 
miles and miles after having been chained to a chair 
for years. 
