N 
1392 
middle-aped can look back to the time food was 
]denty enouph to waste, when “pather up the frag¬ 
ments’’ seemed unnecessary advice, hnt that is only 
a memory now. Earth’s first inhabitants were all 
farmers and stockmen, hnt, as they increased, the 
diversified wants and the desire to pet away from 
the soil, and live by snpidyinp those wants, influ¬ 
enced a propressive desertion until the food-prow¬ 
ing class is now inaderiuate. America grew a pood 
cro]i this year by speeding up, by the help of Provi¬ 
dence and by neglecting the essentials for permanent 
production. "We drew on our capital stock. Quite 
a large per cent came by neglect of the interests 
important for future crop growing. Until the last 
decade, men on fai'ins Avhen they arrived at two- 
score were occupied in all the minutiie of upkeep, 
while boys and young men filled the mows, bins and 
cribs, but at least one-third of the yield of 1917 came 
from the labor of men iiast that ape. 
A P.TJ:E outlook.—O f late years, these old fel¬ 
lows had to drop fixing and tidying up the places to 
help till the u.sual number of acres, and feed the 
urban dwellers, reinfbi'ced with families who had 
left the country, while building, painting, fencing, or¬ 
chard pruning, briar cutting and soil improvement 
were neglected. It has been as if a man worked in 
the cellar while the roof leaked and spoiled all of 
the house above, and it is easy to figure how long 
these old workers will last, and difiicult to know 
Avho will take their places on impoverished field.s. 
■^A’hen this old world .settles back, who that has been 
getting princely wages for short hours will look at 
farm work, and of the boys in the army how many 
will be left alive, sound and untainted for farm 
industry? This is a blue stateme. but not more 
indigo than the outlook, and we must entertain it, 
and try to fix for it. We have been self-sustaining 
and growing some for others, and now how can we 
get enough for ourselves? Forty years ago there 
were seven farms on the lines of the writer’s ]ilace, 
occupied by their owners, who had five husky sons, 
in all 12 good hands, practically owners, and now 
on the same farms there are five tenants, who work 
a little more than half time on them. IMany local¬ 
ities duplicate this. It started in New England half 
a century ago and has reached the Mississippi in 
many places, while poimlation has been growing, 
looking to be fed. I have surely made a case, and 
the evidence is all about us, and the startling Ques¬ 
tion is before us, imperative and insistent, “Where 
will America get food?” 
ONE SOLUTION.—In a late issue of The Outlook 
was an article on “The Industrial Organization of 
Farming,” by Theodore II. I’rice, which is the near¬ 
est to a solution of the trouble that we can see. It 
was the operation of farm lands by capitalists, a 
virtual abandonment by innumerable holders and 
an organized arrangement where there would be no 
duplication, and waste motion, where the workers 
could be handled with the efliciency now found in 
great industrial enterprises, and where tractions 
and other machinery suitable ‘to larger areas than 
our present fields could be used, and where the la¬ 
borers could have infinitely more power for produc¬ 
tion. With this may be counted wholes.ale buying 
of supplies, as well as whole?;ale marketing of pro¬ 
ducts, insuring cheaper food, or. at least, greater 
lu’ofits. Such a thought would have been premature 
a few decades back because farm owners could not 
be torn from their holdings, but now, as .soon as 
they die, heirs are only too willing to sell and carry 
the proceeds to towns or cities. Owners themselves, 
discouraged because they cannot run their iilaces as 
in the past, are moving into towns in shoals, so 
bankers, brewers, merchants, lawyers and others are 
taking the lands for investments. The farmers will 
not be in the way very long, so by the imrchase and 
combination of small holdings, the plan is feasible. 
IlETURNS IN FOOD AND MONEY.—We will not 
go into the subject of the complete disturbance of 
the old-time independence and comfort of farm life, 
nor the effect it will be on the country to lose the 
source of the good, red blood and sturdy muscles, 
because that will be of no use now, but will simply 
say there is any amount of food in it, and plenty of 
money for the investors. The loss of by-products, of 
want of organization, of unoccupied capital, the 
handicap of small fields, and deficiency of business 
I'bility of many farmers, If changed to a wholesale 
business administration, would give fully 50 per cent 
more returns. The expense of unlimited fences, 
small tields, so many lots, of full outfits of machinery 
to each farm, are a loss of 50 per cent. Fences alone 
are a nightmare. There is a loss of one acre under 
and about them on each 10-acre field, and it takes 
ns much machinery to put in and care for a crop 
there as for 50 to 100 acres, so it is a safe estimate 
that not above half the possibilities can be reached 
RURAL N E W-YO R K E R 
with the present system of farming. 
EXPENSE OF EQUII'MENT.—To illustrate fur¬ 
ther, we take as many tools to dig one rod of ditch, 
or set one po.st as are needed for hundreds. For 
eight acres of orchard the sprayer would serve 100. 
Some years the binder is not hitched to, and one 
end of a meadow, at harvest time, is full of ma¬ 
chinery that is in the shed 11 months of the year, 
nnd others are encumbered the .same. Again, oper¬ 
atives on a farm now must be specialists and ex¬ 
perts, with an unlimited number of tools and imple¬ 
ments, utensils and machines, and that takes a life¬ 
time for an intelligent man in the multi]fficity of in¬ 
terests with crops and different animals, but with 
wholesale work, any willing fellow' could be made 
useful in a few lines quickly, and he could ■ follow 
them. I have watched the proportions of consum¬ 
ers grow for year.s, and seen them wince under 
growing prices, Avhile getting lessons myself to 
show the reason why. I have wondered about what 
system could be siibstituted for the old one that must 
be abandoned and now that the best labor of the 
woi-ld is in the jirocess of being spoiled and lost, it 
will bo of no use for the United States to pray. 
Details of Chimney Construction. Fig. 652 
“Feed me with food convenient for me” until there 
is a radical change in the methods of growing it. 
Ohio. W. W\ REYNOLDS. 
Kansas State Fair Free 
A few weeks ago one of our people asked about 
free fairs, or agricultural exhibitions at which no 
admission price was charged. We have already print¬ 
ed one statement about a local fair. It is evident 
from our repoi-ts that there are many of these fairs 
scattered through the West and South. Most of them 
are apparently small fair.s, but the Kansa.s State 
Fair is now conducted on much the same principle. 
Apple Harvest in Orchard of John Sherwood, Niagara Co., N. Y, 
Fig. 653 
Mr. I’hil Eastman, the secretary of this fair, sends 
us an account of it. This fair was started in ISSl. 
They have developed their grounds, until now they 
have about $250,000 -worth of proiierty For several 
years the attendance and the exhibit showed a fall¬ 
ing off. Evidently .some new feature was needed, 
and in 1915 it was propo.sed to awaken interest by 
making the fair free. Shawnee County, in which 
the fair is located, levied a tax of one-ipiarter of a 
mill to pay for premiums, and the I.egislature 
helped in a small way. Thus in 1915 the fair was 
made free, the first large exhibition of this sort to 
adopt the plan. In 1915 a large amount of money 
was spent in improving the grounds. The weather 
was very bad, and the fair ran in debt. In the 
two following years the weather was good, and, in 
spite of the free feature, a small profit was made 
each year. When the fair was first made free the 
week’s attendance was something like 75,000. In 
1915, even with the bad weather, the attendance ran 
up to 115,000. In ]91(! it was estimated at 220,000, 
and in 1917 at 255,000. The plan of a free fair is 
not based on a money-making proposition, but the 
plan is to bring as many people as possible to the 
show. It has proved a great success in Kansas, and 
the managers think this free proposition is the right 
one. The gates are open, and anyone can attend day 
December S, 1917 
or night. The only admissions charged are to the 
race track and the midway atti’actions. Money for 
premiums is obtained fi’om the county and State, 
and from the sale of eoncession.s. This is just the 
experience of Kansas, but we think, however, that 
the same plan will ivork in many other place.s, and 
that the tendency of the future will be to abolish 
the admission fees and make these fairs absolutely 
free. 
Cutting off Potato Tops; Potash 
The enclosed may interest yon. I wonder did the 
cutting of the tojis have any influence in making the 
tubers grow 1 Sometimes our farmers here are able to 
raise good potatoes, but usually all tops and no “spuds.” 
The soil is naturally full of lime, and, I understand, 
enough phosphorus for growing purposes; we get nitro¬ 
gen from the Alfalfa. Why can’t wo raise potatoes? 
You know Colorado soil differs in localities. One part is 
famous for its potatoes (about (ireeley, and the West¬ 
ern slope) ; another ha.s its strawberry day; another its 
peach day; another part famous for apples and pears; 
another (Rocky Ford) grows cantaloupes. Our soil 
(local) is rich only in the respect that it responds 
wonderfully to barn manure, or anything that makes 
humus. We grow Alfalfa, of course, without trouble, 
apparently without effort, especially in virgin land. 
Prowers Co., Colo. w. w. macpiiersox. 
The following is the clipping sent: 
Anyone can raise wheat, beets and Alfalfa, but it 
takes an artist to rai.se potatoes down the Arkansas 
Valley. My ifeighbor. Matt Bodle, said to me the other 
day: “Come, I want to show you something.” lie 
took me over to a patch of ground that looked mostly 
weeds and began digging around, and, behold, he brought 
forth a fine, smooth, clean, red potato of excellent size 
and quality. Digging a little more he unearthed a 
bunch that looked like they had grown so fast they all 
grew together. Six short rows of potatoes, and Matt 
assures me that he has enough spuds to last him all 
AVinter. “How did you manage it?” I asked him. 
“Well,” he said, “the soil is rich. I plowed it, leveled it, 
made furrows through it, put the cutting in about a foot 
apart, ran the float over the ground to cover them, then 
mulched them well with old Alfalfa. They came up 
■without irrigation, but I flooded them twice during the 
season, and as I couldn’t cultivate them, I pulled the 
weeds.” “Rut,” I said, “potatoes here all grow to tops ; 
how did you prevent that?” “AVhy,” he said, “when the 
tops were in bloom I ran the mower over the patch and 
clipped them about one-half off.” This js the first time 
I ever heard of cutting a man in two to make his feet 
grow. I hope, however, this is the secret of growing 
spuds in Prowers County. We have everything else 
that makes life worth while, and if we can grow po¬ 
tatoes some antiquarian will one day figure out that the 
Garden of Eden was in Prowers County. 
W HEN potatoes “run to tops,” or when any crop 
makes a very rank growth above ground, the 
conclu.sion is that the soil is rich in available nitro¬ 
gen, but with not enough pota.sh and phosphorus to 
“balance” it. After giving good crops of Alfalfa 
any soil will become stocked with nitrogen, and will 
lu-oduce big potato vines or cornstalks. We know of 
apple orchards in which several crops of clover 
were plowed under and stable manure used. The 
trees made a heavy growth, but the apples were poor 
and light-colored and fruit buds did not form well. 
The owner used wood ashes or potash salts with 
acid jihosphato, and obtained mnch better results. 
The theoi-y hoi-e was that the potash and phosphorus 
thus added in the ashe.s, bone or phosphate “bal¬ 
anced” or regulated the over-supply of nitrogen, 
pretty mnch as bread and potatoes eaten along with 
meat Avill give a “balanced” ration. In the East, 
where close attention is given to such “signs,” we 
.should say that your soil needs available potash in 
some form. Potash is the essential element in grow¬ 
ing potatoes. The big growth of tops .shows there is 
enough nitrogen, and the chemists find enough phos¬ 
phorus. We should try wood a.shes or one of the 
potash salts. As for cutting off the vines, we have 
had a number of reports about this. Some of the 
experiment stations have tried it. In several cases 
friends have tried this cutting in cases of blight. 
The big vines became diseased and they were cut off 
with scythe or mower, raked away and buried. Then 
the “stubble” was thoroughly sprayed. A new 
growth started and this could be sprayed more thor¬ 
oughly than the big vines. The result was that the 
tops were kept alive and a fair crop produced. We 
think the result of cutting off the big vines would 
be to stimulate a new growth under ground in con¬ 
nection with the new top which comes out as the 
result of such trimming. It would, of course, depend 
on conditions, but we think on .such laud and with 
irrigation possible, the plan was a good one. Let no 
man, however, say that we advocate mowing potato 
tops under all conditions. In most cases it would be 
the wor.st thing you could do. 
Now the experts come back to show that bread made 
from a mixture of Alfalfa meal and flour is strong and 
economical food. ^Ye have no doubt man will be eating 
Alfalfa freely within 10 year's. 
Many a country church or Grange can help in the 
coal shortage by burning wood. Many of us who live in 
the country have formed the haUt of burning coal, when, 
with a few changes and a little inconvenience at first, 
we could easily use more wood, 
