670 
■Ghe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
May 12, 1917. 
The FaiTn Problem 
According to the survey recently made 
by the Food 'Supply Commission, New 
York farmer.s need 51,987 hired men 
more than they now have. They already 
emi)loy 78,i:}5, against 92,831 employed 
the same time last year. They could- use 
22,120 school hoys of farm experience as 
part of the 51,987 men- needed. 
To meet this need the commi.ssion is 
trying to place school and college boys 
with farm experience where needed. 
There are probably 70,000 retired far¬ 
mers all told in the State, and many men 
of farm experience in the factories and 
in other positions throughout the State; 
and it is hoped that many of these can 
be induced to help out with the farm 
work this year. 
Many city organizations have become 
alarmed at the shortage of farm help 
and some of them have determined to 
send city boys and men to work on farms. 
Their intentions are good enough, but 
they cannot be made to realize that such 
help would be worse than useless on the 
farm. It is hard to make them under¬ 
stand that at this time of year farmers 
have troubles enough without the addi¬ 
tional burden of a lot of green help from 
the city. To make the proposition as 
ridiculous as possible they propose that 
the city men form a chain, one spending 
a vacation of two weeks on the farm, 
to be replaced by a new man at the end 
of his vacation, the process to be con¬ 
tinued all Summer. It has never oc¬ 
curred to any of them to consult the far¬ 
mer about the proposition. The farmer’s 
wife is promised a succession of city 
boarders in this scheme; btit there seems 
no promise of extra “pin money.” 
Another means of supplying farm help 
is proposed by railroads and manufac¬ 
turer.s. This is to take a list of em¬ 
ployes who have had farm experience 
and loan them for two or three weeks at 
a time to farmers. The suggestion is 
that the farmer pay the regular farm 
rate of wages, and the regular employe 
make up. the difference between this and 
the regular wages of the employer. As 
we see it there are three objections to 
this plan. First, the men would not be 
hardened to farm work, and would hard¬ 
ly get in trim for real work when they 
would have to i-eturn to the factory. 
Second, thei’e would be danger that the 
influence of such men would be to cause 
discontent of the regular farm hands, 
and possibly make conditions worse in¬ 
stead of better. Third, the plan is an 
expediency. It is a gratuity to the far¬ 
mer and a subsidy to the farm. It will 
never settle the problem of farm produc¬ 
tion. Indirectly the railroad would ben¬ 
efit in extra crops to carry, and the man¬ 
ufacturer would profit in cheaper food 
for his operators, and by thus keeping 
them contented with lower wages. But it 
implies th.at the farm cannot be operated 
as a business. It is a humility to the 
great agricultural interests of the State. 
It is not desirable, and it is not neces¬ 
sary. It will not be successful. Food 
is the most important thing we produce. 
The supply is short now because the pro¬ 
duction of it has been steadily discour¬ 
aged for 40 years. We now have the 
crisis. City men think we ought to 
undo the work of 40 years in 40 hours. 
We cannot do it. It takes nearly a year 
to j)roduce a bushel of wheat; and three 
years to produce a cow. The way to 
get an abundance of food is to pay the 
men who produce it enough to cover cost 
of production and a reasonable profit. 
That is what must be done. It is hard 
for some men to realize the necessity of 
this. They don’t want to believe it. 
They still want a dollar’s worth of food 
for 35 cents. They are now willing to 
throw in a few pennies as gratuities; but 
the time is about here when the farmer 
will add a reasonable profit to his cost 
of production, and set his own reasonable 
price for his product. 
Fertilizing Value of Corncobs 
How can corncobs be used to the best 
advantage? If crushed or ground with 
the corn do they take the place of hay 
ration? If used as fertilizer what is their 
value when distributed over the laud and 
plowed under? What is the value of the 
ashes and what do the ashes contain? 
Arcadia, Fla. l. m. f. 
Average composition of col)S and then 
ashes will run about as follows: 
Pounds in One Ton. 
Nitiogen Phos. Acid Potash 
Corncobs. 8 1 9 
Corncob ashes. .. 90 480 
Most chemists say that ordinary sam¬ 
ples of cob ashes will run much lower in 
potash, since they are usually mixed with 
sand. The pure ash from burning the 
cobs in a stove will contain over 20 i)€r 
cent, of potash. The unburned cobs do 
not contain much plant food—as. will be 
seen. They are slow to- decay when used 
whole on the soil. Our plan is to crush 
them—which we do in a swmep power— 
and use them as litter in the chicken 
house, or as bedding for the horses and 
COW.S. They make a fair absorbent for 
the liquids, and, when mixed through the 
manure, Avork Avell into the ground. 
There is not much loss of nitrogen in 
burning, and the quickest way to make 
them available is to burn them and save 
the ashes. 
The Potato Digger as Bean Harvester 
Answering S. R. B., page 272, regard¬ 
ing bean harvesters, I notice that his 
expoi’ience Avas not pleasant. The so- 
called bean harvester cannot be used 
with success on coarse gravel soils with¬ 
out much trouble in separating the stones 
from the vines. On soils free from such 
the harvester ma.v be used, perhaps with 
fair satisfaction, but I think that a bet¬ 
ter way is to use a two-hor.se elevator 
potato digger, where roAvs are 28 inches 
or moi'e apart. 
My experience with the potato digger 
convinced me that it was the best tool, all 
soils considered. I adjust the shovel to 
run as shallow as will get under the 
roots (as no tool will cut them), and 
carry the vines on the elevator apron, 
the vibration of which will separate the 
soil from the vines and leave them be¬ 
hind the machine clean and unharmed. 
Then with a four or five-tined fork one 
can gather the beans into bunches as 
desired, and do it rapidly, putting sev¬ 
eral rows into one with no stones or 
dirt. F. M. BUGBEE. 
Ohio. 
Birds and Cherries 
If E. C. T., Wellsville, O., Avill set 
out a feAV mulberry trees near his cherry 
trees, the birds Avill not bother tlie chei’- 
ries, after the mulberry trees get to bear¬ 
ing. c. A. K. 
Galien, Mich. 
Tell C. E. T., page 370, to plant some 
of the Russian mulberry trees and birds 
Avill not bother the cheiTies while the 
mulberries last. subscriber. 
R. N.-Y.—But Avhat is to be done 
Avhile the mulberries are growing? 
A simple and effective remedy for pro¬ 
tecting fruit fx’om the birds is to suspend 
liiece.s of shingles with wrapping twine. 
The slightest breeze aauII 'cause the 
shingle to spin around. Attach one or 
tAAm small pieces of bright colored strips 
of cloth or ribbons and you Avill have a 
scarecrow that will be in motion most of 
the time, and no birds aauU ventui’e near 
it. C. AV. B. 
NeAV York. 
Velvet Beans fn the North 
There are more calls than ever this 
year for information about velvet beans, 
as a green manure and forage crop. In 
Florida and Southern Alabama the velvet 
bean makes a tremendous growth through 
the long Summers, and gives a fodder of 
high feeding value. Thei-e is a saying in 
Florida that velvet beans planted in the 
corn, or in an orchard, Avill drive a man 
out of the field. We have seen the vines 
climbing orange or nut trees that were 
certainly 20 feet high. We tried these 
beans in New Jersey. They made a fair 
groAvth, but the vine Avas not as large on 
the Avhole as our native Lima beans. 
People through Virginia are advised to 
plant these velvet beans. biP from our 
observation and reports AV'e would not ad¬ 
vise such planting on n large scale. We 
think the Soy bean, the cow pea, or the 
Lima bean Avill be more satisfactory north 
of middle Georgia. 
“For the Land’s Sake, use BoAvker’.s 
Fertilizei-s; they enrich the earth and 
those Avho till it.”— Adv. 
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Seasonable Farm Seeds 
cow PEAS, SOY BEANS 
The best varieties for hay and 
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MANGEL WURZELS and 
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for stock feeding, all the best varieties. 
Write for prices on any Farm Seeds de¬ 
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oj North Dakota 
KINDERHOOK, N. Y. 
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