IShe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
November 24, 1917 
1346 
these have not yet been thoroughly devel¬ 
oped, and one of the present lighter trac¬ 
tors might well be tried on such a farm as 
this man describes. It must be understood, 
however, that a tractor wull not run itself, 
but requires a man of good mechanical 
brain, and sensible in the handling of ma¬ 
chinery. It would be a mistake for a man 
to suppose that with little knowledge of 
mechanics he can buy any tractor and 
operate it successfully. Such a thing 
would not be true of a team of horses, 
as many a back-to-the-lander has found to 
his cost. There are some farmers who 
have no natural ability for handling com¬ 
plicated machinery, and it would be bet¬ 
ter for them to let the tractors alone, un- 
they have some boy or hired man who 
has this natural ability. We have had a 
number of cases where men have bought 
the tractors, supposing that no particular 
skill or care was required in handling 
them. The result was always clisappoint- 
ijig, and made uncalled-for trouble be¬ 
tween the purchaser and the manufac¬ 
turer. We believe that within the next 
five years thousands of tractors must be 
put at work on just such a farm as the 
one mentioned by this inquirer. If agri¬ 
cultural conditions develop along the lines 
which are indicated at present, many of 
these farmers will be compelled to do 
much of their work by tractor power, 
get out of business,' or let their entire 
farm go into pasture, with a small por¬ 
tion of it in grain. We think there is no 
doubt about the possibilities of working 
such a farm by tractor power, where the 
farmer has a fa"” idea of mechanics and 
is naturally careful of machinery. We 
have one record of a light tractor doing 
good work in a nine-acre field. Have any 
readers worked them profitably in fields 
smaller than that? 
Re-Seeding Alfalfa With Oats 
I have an Alfalfa field that has thinned 
out too much, and I wish to re-seed it 
promptly and with least labor. The usual 
way would be to plow the Alfalfa sod and 
seed to oats and barley next Spring; then 
work up the stubble and seed to Alfalfa 
alone in August. Could I save labor by 
seeding Alfalfa right with the oats next 
Spring, and thus save one working and 
extra seeding? s* o. 
Central New York. 
Here in the Onondaga Alfalfa belt we 
have found re-seeding in the Spring with 
a Spring grain crop to be the most suc¬ 
cessful method. There is danger, how¬ 
ever, that the soil of an old Alfalfa field 
will contain an excess of nitrogen so that 
oats will lodge and much of the ci'op be 
lost. This is the method I should employ: 
Plow this Fall if possible and sow a cover 
crop of rye. Plow under rye next Spring, 
fit well to kill quack or witch grass, and 
sow the usual amount of barley. Just be¬ 
fore the barley breaks through, sow Al¬ 
falfa and brush in w’th weeder or smooth¬ 
ing barrow. iiami.kt W'OHKEr. 
Onondaga Co., N. Y. 
In the more favored Alfalfa growing 
districts of the .State it is quite common 
practice to seed Alfalfa in Spring grain, 
such as oats, barley, or peas. In these 
more favored sections there seems little 
trouble in getting a stand, sowing it al¬ 
most any way that is convenient, but 
probably in three-fourths of the State it 
would be desirable to take more pains 
and givd the young Alfalfa a better 
chance. When it is desired to re-seed an 
Alfalfa field, as suggested, in oats, it 
would seem very impoi'tant that the bi'eak- 
ing of the sod should occur in the Fall. 
Fall plowing is favorable for oats in any 
case, and .so is it for the young Alfalfa 
if it is to be sown in the Spring, and it 
becomes doubly important in case of a 
sod. This procedure is not quite so safe 
and yet it is frequently resorted to with 
success. J. L. .STONE. 
Re- thrashing Beans 
The Industrial Department of the 
Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad sends 
out the following note about thrashing 
beans twice: 
Last week when we thrashed at the 
Demonstration Farm, a fraction over nine 
acres of beans yielded 59 bushels on the 
first run through the machine; the straw 
was put in again, producing an additional 
13'^/2 bushels, or 23 per cent of the first 
run. The beans were sold the next day 
at $6.90 a bushel; thus the direct inj 
creased earning was $93.15 gross; less $5 
for re-thrashing, $88.15 net. This saving 
of hitherto waste would serve 4,320 plates 
of baked beans on the basis of 3 ounces 
per plate. Or, for a family of five, it 
would provide 864 meals. 
These are times when it seems to pay to 
go over everything twice—including the 
coal ashes. 
Schedule of New War Tax on Parcel Post 
Packages 
Postmaster General Burleson has is¬ 
sued an order relating to the tax on par¬ 
cel post. This parcel-post tax is effective 
on and after December 1, 1917. 
Parcel-post packages must have inter¬ 
nal-revenue stamps affixed by the sender 
in addition to the lawful postage as fol¬ 
lows : 
One cent revenue stamp for each pack¬ 
age subject to 25 cents in postage (no tax 
under 25 cents), 2-cent revenue stamp for 
each package subject to postage from 26 
to 50 cents, and so on. Regular postage 
stamps will not be valid for this pay¬ 
ment. Special internal-revenue stamps 
will be furnished. 
This is a tax independent of and dis¬ 
tinct from the change in rates of postage 
which go into effect on and after Novem¬ 
ber 2, 1917, as follows: 
Letters and other first-class matter, 3 
cents per ounce or fraction thereof. 
Postal card.s, 2 cent.s. 
Post card, 2-cent stamp affixed. 
A local or “drop letter”—a letter ad¬ 
dressed for delivery from the office at 
which it is posted—2 cents per ounce or 
fraction thereof. 
A Hand Power Stump-Puller 
On page 1237 I read of C. P. B.’s ex¬ 
perience with a hand-power stump-puller, 
he mu.st have got hold of poor stuff. I 
have had a little experience with one 
of these advertised in The R. N.-Y. We 
have pulled stumps from six acres, and so 
far find the machine very sati.sfactory. 
We have pulled green stumps with from 
25 to 30 feet root spread. Large pine.s, 
also, with immense root spreads, yield 
Readily. The number of stumps that can 
be pulled per day depends largely upon 
Work of Stump-puller. Fig, 633 
the kind of stumps. "We have pulled as 
high as 60 to 70, and as low as 15 to 20. 
The cleaning of the stump takes a greater 
share of the time. As for moving the 
machine about, it can easily be carried 
by two men, or one man can haul it by 
the lever as it weighs only 171 lbs. It 
can be used on any kind of land and 
operated in any position. I am enclosing 
a picture, shown in Fig. 633, of one 
stump with a diameter of more than three 
feet, that was pulled with less than one- 
half the machine’s power. 
New York. aiuiucE woodArd. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK 
DOMESTIC.—A complete wireless re¬ 
ceiving outfit has been discovered by Fed¬ 
eral agents near Norwich, Conn. The 
owner and operator of the wirele.ss out¬ 
fit, Charles Troland, was not arrested. A 
code book found in his possession con¬ 
tained a number of messages concerning 
movements of ships sent out from Berlin, 
Germany, and also contained me.ssages 
sent out by wireless from Sayville. 
The United States seized Nov. 8, the 
building owned and occupied by the Ham- 
burg-American steamship line at 45 
Broadway, New York, as well as all the 
effects of the steamship company, in which 
the Kaiser is the largest stockholder. 
Several Federal officials called recently 
at the offices of the Ilamburg-American 
Line and asked to be-shown the diagram.s 
of the ballast plans of the steamships 
of that line which the United States Gov¬ 
ernment had seized. These plans were 
essential to an early commissioning of 
the ships, and with them the Government 
could place vessels in service at a few 
days notice. Knowledge of the plans 
was disavowed by the Hamburg-Ameri- 
can officials, all insisting that such dia¬ 
grams wei’e kept carefully guarded at the 
home offices in Ilamburg. The Federal 
officers insisted upon a search, with the 
result that the ballast plans of every 
ves.sel of the line were found in the safe. 
The.se included even the plans of the Vat- 
erland, now the Leviathan. The steam¬ 
ship line had evidently been warned that 
a raid was intended as quantities of 
papers were prepared for removal. 
(Continued on page 1.348.) 
The Simplicity of 
EMPIRE MILKING MACHINES 
The calf is the model of the Empire Milker. The soft rubber 
lining of the teat-cup takes the place of the calf’s mouth 
and tongue. In hand-milking you squeeze out the milk but 
the calf gently sucl^s it out—and so does the Empire Milker. 
After every suck the calf swallows—and 
his tongue massages the teat backwards 
from tip to udder. This is a provision of 
Nature to prevent congestion and sore 
teats. It occurs regularly, from 48 to 52 
times a minute. 
Hand-milkers do not relieve and mas¬ 
sage the teat—neither do some milking 
machines. 
The Empire does. A simple arrange¬ 
ment. called the Pulsator, stops the 
sucking and lets air flow in between the 
rubber lining and the walls of the teat- 
cup. This makes the rubber lining 
gently massage the teat from tip to udder, 
just like the calf. With the Empire Milk¬ 
ing. sore teats do not nor cannot occur. 
With the Empire Outfit you have; An 
air-pump, to do the sucking; a teat-cup 
instead of the calf’s mouth and tongue; 
a Pulsator. to time the sucking and 
massaging just right; and a bucket to 
catch the milk. 
Many a lO-year old boy or girl is run¬ 
ning an Empire Outfit these nights and 
mornings. With two double units a boy 
or girl can take the place of two hand- 
milkers and milk from 20 to 40 cows in 
an hour and a half. The cows like the 
gentle uniformity of Empire Milking, 
giving down readily and usually pro¬ 
ducing an increase in the yield. 
War-time is causing hundreds of farmers 
to install these simple, practical Empire 
Outfits. In Canada. Empire Milker sales 
have trebled—throughout the United 
States, sales are already crowding our 
factory to capacity. We counsel prompt¬ 
ness—see your dealer while he can 
still take care of you and write us 
today for Catalog 23. 
EMPIRE CREAM SEPARATOR COMPANY 
A Iso Manufacturtn of Empire 
Cream Separators, Gasolirte En¬ 
gine* and Farm Electric Plants 
Bloomfield, New Jersey 
Cbicafo, IIL Denver, Col. 
Montreal and Toronto—Canada 
ana 
a ■ ■ 
Let Us Quote You 
a Price on Doubling Your 
Crops and Profits 
36- 
Page 
Book 
TcUsAU 
(5Ke JeffreijLajglS^R. 
We have the right machine for you, at the 
right price, to make you big profits grinding 
limestone to enrich your land and double 
crops. 
A Jeffery Lime Pulver will grind any lime¬ 
stone ledge rock into the finest limestone. 
N ot only will you double the fertility of your 
own soil.butyou can sell the Pulver’d limeto 
your neighbors at an attractive profit. You 
can also use your machine for crushing rock 
for concrete and road work. YourLlme Pulver 
will pay you big profits. Requires no experi¬ 
ence. Simply belt It to your engine and feed 
It rock. 
WRITE TODAY for Big 36-Page Color 
JlluttraUd Catalog and Special Proposition — 
Cash or Easv 71erm$ — on how to turn your 
rocks Into dollars. Be sure to give h. p. of 
your engine. 
THE JEFFREY MFG. COa 
866 N. Fourth Street t : Columbua. Ohio 
LIVE DEALER AGENTS WRITE 
“DON’T BUY A FARM””"',;;; 
125-acre daivy-eeneval farm. 2 Dwellings: Barn, 
50 head; Spring water: 30 acres timber. Manufac- 
turine town 1 mile. ®6,600. Particulars, Photos. 
Catalogue 200 bargains surrounding Philadelphia 
on request. H. C. REESE & SON, 6 L Airy St, Norristown, Pa. 
The Farm Brokers’ Association, Inc. lrs”for "^gSod 
farms and other country real estate everywhere in New 
York State. Personally Inspected properties. Carefiu 
descriptions. Right prices. CENTRAL OFFICE AT 
ONEIDA, N. y., other oftices throughout the State. 
400ACRE FARMfor$5,t00 
in tobacco this year produced 7,000 ibo., worth 38 cts. per 
lb. Good location for corn, wheat, grass and live stock. 
Blohmond-Washlngton Farm Agency, Ine., FreOiriekibura, Vs 
Yours! 
A 50-gallon barrel 
of Scalecide to 
any one who will 
suggest a fairer 
guarantee than 
that given below. 
“SCALECIDE” 
As proofofour confidence and to strength¬ 
en yours, wo will make the following 
proposition to any fruit grower of average 
honesty and veracity: 
Divide your orchard in half, no matter how I^ge 
or small. Spray one-half with SCALECIDL , 
and the other with Lime-Sulfur for three yeara, 
everything elsebeing equal. If at the end of that 
time, three disinterested fruit growere say that 
the part spray^ with “SCALECIDE is not in 
every way better than that sprayed with Lime- 
Sulfur, we will return you the money you paid 
us for the "SCALECIDE”. 
Send for new free booklet, 
“ Profits in Fall Spraying”. 
B. G. Pratt Co., M’f g Chemists 
SO Church St. Dept. N New York 
COLLECTORS OF 
RAW FURS 
should write to me for price list 
and shipping tags. 
Twenty-one years in Raw Fur 
business at the same place. 
Am member cf Rata Pur Merehants 
AuoeicUum, Citu of New York 
Let me hear from you. 
CHARLES A. KAUNE 
Trade Murk 284 Bridge 8t., Montgomery,N.Y. 
SEED has advanced elsewhere. Order now. 
dW66IulOV6r bow in winter. A. BleemintStle.Scktatctidi, ■.!• 
Hare For Sale Seren (7) Farms 
Books Worth Buying 
Landscape Gardening, Parsons.2.00 
Lawn Making. Barron......... l.JO 
Fertilizers and Crops, Van Slyke.... 2.60 
Weeds of Farm and Garden, Pammel 1.60 
Book of Wheat, Dondllnger. 2.00 
Buccessful Fruit Culture, Maynard.. 1.00 
Irrigation and Drainage, King.... 1.60 
Btudy of Corn, Shoesmitb.60 
Vbe Soil. King. 1.80 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
838 WEST 80th ST., NEW YORK. 
