1478 
THE KURAL N EW-VORKER 
vegetables for the family, and not forgetting half an 
acre of mangels for the cows, you can fix fences, 
and repair the buildings the rest of the time. 
The cows will need grain for about 210 days in 
llie year. Eight pounds apiece will do on an aver¬ 
age. This will make around 25,000 pounds. Your 
horses will need at least 200 bushels of oats, but 
you may have as much as 7.000 pounds of small 
grains left. If it should stop raining, and the sun 
should shine a lot next year (shine enough to make 
your corn grow, but not so hot that you couldn't 
hoe it) you may raise 8,000 pounds of shelled corn, 
which ground with the other grain will give you al¬ 
most 15.000 pounds of cow feed. This will leave 
but 10,000 pounds of bran, gluten, etc., to be bought, 
and you ought to get it for something like .$140. 
The blacksmith will probably get about $.35 of 
your money for shoeing horses and repairing, and 
you will lie lucky if you get off with $50 for insur¬ 
ance and taxes. 
Then you know how cows grow old, and even 
sometimes die before they get old. So I think that 
about $100 a year will have to be set aside to keep 
the dairy in repair. Then those rather cheap horses 
have a way of giving out just when you need them 
the worst, and for that reason, I would lay aside at 
least $45 a year as a horse fund. T don’t know how 
big your family is, or what their tastes are. You 
do. So I will leave it for you to figure out what 
style of auto you can buy on your profits. 
J. GRANT MORSE. 
English Farmers and Wheat Growing 
ARMERS in England have been having some¬ 
thing of a struggle with the Government over 
the question of prices for wheat. The war has 
made the English people rather fearful about their 
food supplies. There was a time, many years ago, 
when English farmers not only raised food enough 
for the entire nation, but had grain and meat for 
export. That was many years ago, and since then 
industrial and social changes have upset the old 
theory and practice. As England became more and 
more a manufacturing nation, farming decreased in 
importance as a business, and grain growing in 
particular lost in importance. Vegetables, fruit and 
milk became more profitable, just as the same thing 
lias been found in New England, and in most of 
the States on the Atlantic slope. The labor prob¬ 
lem is troublesome in England as it is in this coun¬ 
try, and year after year the English farmers slow¬ 
ly adjust their farming so as to bring more and 
more of the land into permanent pastures and mea¬ 
dows. Tn the humid climate of England suitable 
land put down into grass will remain there for 
many years, if it is well seeded in the first place, 
and fertilized every year with manure or chem¬ 
icals. Many of the English farms are rented on 
b ases which compel the tenant to keep certain fields 
in sod, and also to keep a certain proportion of 
the land in grass. When this war broke out prices 
for all kinds of farm produce began to jump and 
there was an increased demand for grain, particu¬ 
larly wheat, in order to build up a greater surplus 
of bread. The government began to induce farmers 
to increase their acreage in wheat. The sugges¬ 
tion was •that many of the old meadows and pas¬ 
tures be plowed up and planted to grain, thus break¬ 
ing up the old rotations, cutting down the area in 
grass, and changing the entire system of farm¬ 
ing. Many tenant farmers were unable to do this 
without the consent of their landlords, as their 
leases called for a certain proportion of the farm 
in sod. In some cases the landlords were willing 
to waive their rights and change the contract, but 
a new difficulty arose from the fact that farmers 
demanded that the government guarantee certain 
high prices for wheat for the next five years. These 
farmers argued, with some reason, that they might 
break up their land, change their entire system of 
farming, and increase the wheat supply at consid¬ 
erable cost, and then find with the close of the 
war in a year or more, that wheat was rushing in 
from all over the world to compete with their own 
crop. This they felt was an injustice, and that 
they could not reasonably be expected to increase 
the English wheat supply unless the government 
guaranteed that definite prices would be paid for 
five years. These farmers demanded that the price 
ct English wheat should not go below $1.10 a bushel 
cr above $1.40. They felt that a margin between 
these two figures would be fair to the Government 
and fair to the producers. After a long argument 
the government finally refused to give any such 
guarantee, so that while the acreage of wheat on 
English farms has been somewhat increased, the 
farmers will not produce a very much larger yield 
than formerly. The farmers felt that they were 
justified in the position they took, but the English 
government felt that it should not be expected to give 
such guarantee, as it would be considered in a w r ay 
“class legislation,” and there is every reason to ex¬ 
pect that at the close of the war, the world’s wheat 
crop will be greatly increased in which case the gov¬ 
ernment would be forced to pay a large bounty to 
fa rmers. 
Marketing Apples in Tin Cans 
I N reading the reports from the various apple mar¬ 
kets the past Fall I have been more and more 
impressed with the idea that we farmers do not yet 
know the first principles of marketing. “Buy your 
goods in the lowest market and sell in the highest” 
sounds all right when quoted to us by some far-see¬ 
ing economist, and one-half of this advice we are 
taking and constantly putting into effect, but the 
other and more important half we ignore. So we 
form purchasing associations and organize Grange 
stores so that we can purchase to best advantage, 
but when we come to sell most of us are dumpers, 
throwing our goods on an already overstocked mar¬ 
ket, and when we get less than the cost of produc¬ 
tion we, if we are pessimists, say it is due to the 
robber merchants, and if we are optimists we resign 
ourselves and say it is the will of the Lord. 
We explain this condition by saying it is over¬ 
production, but how can this be possible while all 
around, are hungry mouths and empty stomachs 
clamoring to be filled? For “overproduction” I 
should substitute the term “we-don’t-know market¬ 
ing” and surely we do not know marketing until we 
know how to get the most money for our crops. Any 
man who sends apples to New York City or any 
other large city and allows them to be sold at $2 
per barrel does not know how to get the most money 
for his crop. I figure it out this way: If he pays 
GUARANTEED STANDARD QUALITY BY THE 
Vermont Maple Sugar Maker's Association 
f>UT UP BTT 
Official Label of Vermont Sugar Makers. Fig< 555 
See page 1479 
40 cents for a barrel and his freight only costs him 
15 cents, and the market only charges him five per 
cent, commission, and nothing for cartage, he has 
to pay out of his $2 a total of 65 cents, which leaves 
him only $1.35 for his barrel of apples. That man 
is taking too little for his apples. If he “knew 
marketing” he would keep those apples at home, 
place them in tin cans during the late Fall or early 
Winter, and with the present active demand and 
prices he would realize at least $1.50 for every bar¬ 
rel of apples he put into the tins. 
But to get back to the apples. I believe that the 
time is near when every commercial grower of ap¬ 
ples will either belong to a cooperative cannery, 
which I consider the ideal proposition, or he will 
have a little farm cannery to take care of his crop. 
With a membership * in a cooperative cannery or 
with a cannery on the farm he is practically inde¬ 
pendent of the market. If the price for the ripe 
fruit goes to a point that pays he can ship to mar¬ 
ket, but if the price for fresh fruit drops to a low 
point he can keep his apples at home, put them in 
tins and place them on the market at once if he 
wishes, or he can store them in his cellar until he 
gets ready to market them, and a barrel of apples 
in tins will only take up half the space they do in 
barrels. There will be no rotten apples to throw 
away when marketing, no shrinkage, no sorting for 
“A,” “B” or “C” grade, no minimum to mark on the 
barrel, and no worrying about the market dropping 
off between the time of shipping the apples and time 
of receiving at market. Besides, he keeps at home all 
the fertility that is contained in the skins and cores, 
which is quite an item if he keeps-track of these 
little items that go to make a successful farmer. 
December 18, 1915. 
These same skins and cores, if properly taken care 
of, will provide two or more gallons of good vine¬ 
gar to each barrel of apples canned, which helps 
toward paying the expense of running the cannery. 
As I said before, the ideal proposition is a com¬ 
munity cooperative cannery, but lacking membership 
in this the homemade farm canner should be util¬ 
ized. Any man with ordinary mechanical ingenuity 
should be able to make a homemade outfit from ma¬ 
terials which may be found on nearly every fruit 
farm. Some special tools, perhaps, would have to 
lie purchased, such as peeling machines and solder¬ 
ing coppers, but these are comparatively inexpensive 
and easily procured. 
Neither is the canning operation difficult to mas¬ 
ter. A 12-year-old boy in one hour will grasp the 
principle involved and with a little experience be 
able to meet most problems that present themselves 
in ordinary apple canning. Briefly the canning of 
apples consists simply of peeling and coring-the ap¬ 
ple on a machine with which most everybody is fam¬ 
iliar, cutting the apple in quarters, placing the 
quarters in quart or gallon cans—gallon cans most¬ 
ly, as nearly all the canned apples are used by bak¬ 
ers or hotels—filling the cans with clear cold water, 
closing the cans and cooking the apples in the cans 
from 10 to 20 minutes, depending upon the variety 
being canned. Then the cans are labeled with the 
name of the packer, placed in cases holding either 
one or two dozen cans, nailed up and placed on the 
market. The price per dozen for gallon apples in 
New York City at present is $2.50. 
Cans, cases, labels and solder cost about $1.15 per 
case of 12, labor .35 cents, total $1.50, which leaves 
$1 for the apples therein. Good selected, hand¬ 
picked apples will run two cases per barrel, which 
makes your apples bring $2 per barrel at the farm, 
and you save the barrel. Commission and freight 
must be paid on the apples no matter in which shape 
you sell them, but the canned apples take a lower 
classification, so freight is lower, and the commis¬ 
sion on canned goods is generally about three per 
cent. Canned apples this season are higher than 
they have been in past years, when the market has 
langed around $2.25 per dozen, but even at this lat¬ 
ter price, if the grower put his apples on the market 
in tin cans, he would realize about $1.50 per barrel 
for good stock. c. o. warford. 
Clover in a Grain Rotation 
HE following table is taken from Bulletin 19.3 
from the Kentucky Experiment Station (Lex¬ 
ington). It gives the figures which many readers 
have been asking for. 
Showing amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus and potas¬ 
sium required for corn, wheat, oats, tobacco and clover. 
Lbs. 
Lbs. 
Lbs. 
Nitrogen Phosphorus 
Potassium 
Gorn. 50 bu. per acre, requires 
50. 
10. 
10. 
Stalks on same, 2 tons.... 
30. 
7. 
29. 
l^otal . 
80. 
17. 
39. 
Wheat, 25 bu. per acre, re¬ 
quires . 
30. 
5. 
5. 
Straw on same, 1)4 tons... 
7)4 
3/5 
15. 
Total . 
37)4 
5-3/5 
20. 
Oats, 30 bu. per acre, requires 
20. 
3)4 
5. 
Straw on same, 2 tons. ... 
24. 
3y* 
40. 
Total . 
44. 
7. 
45. 
Tobacco (Ky. dark) 1000 
lbs. of leaf, requires.... 
40. 
2.2 
50. 
Stalks from same, 300 lbs.. 
10. 
.8 
10. 
Total . 
50. 
3. 
60. 
Red clover, 2 tons per acre 
80. 
10. 
60. 
This shows what happens under 
grain 
and to- 
bacco farming where the grain is sold and the straw 
not well cared for. There is a heavy loss in nitro¬ 
gen and potash—the latter being mostly in the 
straw and stalks. Where these are fed or saved so 
as to go back on the land the potash supply is 
helped, though in the ordinary system of handling 
farm feed and manures considerable of both nitro¬ 
gen and potash are lost. See what a help it is to 
use clover in the rotation and plow it under once 
in three or four years. By doing this we add SO 
pounds of nitrogen—a large part of it being an 
entire gain, since it came from the air. At the same 
time 10 pounds of phosphorus and 60 of potash are 
returned to the soil—some of it at least made avail¬ 
able by the clover. 
This bulletin shows that grain farming, without 
the use of clover or other mammal crops, has been 
responsible for much of the impoverished soil of 
Kentucky. Such soil has been exhausted of avail¬ 
able nitrogen and phosphoric acid, and its mechan¬ 
ical condition badly injured through lack of organic 
matter. These soils can be restored by the use of 
lime and legumes, but they never should have been 
permitted to become exhausted. With the use of 
clover, lime and phosphates they could have been 
kept going at a profit indefinitely. 
