68 
with the Rhode Islam! S.tate Experiment Station, 
the re.-<nlt heiim that experiments of the greatest 
value are teing carried on there. These experiments 
deal particularly with the qxiestion of fertilizers to 
be used for market gardening opei'ations, in view of 
the growing scarcity and high price of stal)le manure. 
Even more important, perhaps, has been tbe intro¬ 
duction of a standardized package through the efforts 
of the Association. The legislature of Rhode Island 
lias passed a law fixing the size of a standard 
bushel or balf-bnsbel l>ox. In most .'States vegetables 
are sold by weight, and the weight per Inishel 
varies greatly. TTider the Rhode Island law prac¬ 
tically all vegetables are sold by mea.sure. This 
.siinjilifies marketing operations, for many members 
of the Providence Association have their farms in 
-Massachusetts; and the bushel box commonly u.sed 
in Massachusetts is twenty-three percent oversize 
as comijared with the 1'i‘ovidence liox. The interest 
of both the. market gardeners and the public is 
served by a flovernmeiit Market Ex])ert. who makes 
public reports each day on prices current. At one 
time it was tliought possible to put up a bulletin 
lioard in the market, on which average prices of the 
day might bt* announced, but it was found that this 
was not feasible, because annimncements could not 
be made early enough to be of service. This is an 
open air market, and tlie season's work is practic¬ 
ally over by tlie first of December, so far as the 
average market gardener is concerned. A few 
Imildings have been imt up, however, by private 
gardeners under a special arrangement with the 
.Association, and they are occupied throughout the 
Winter. Tbe men who sell in these Winter markets 
are mostly inai'ket gardeners who carry on extens¬ 
ive opm’ation.s. and store a large amount of ])roduce. 
In several cases they also handle the output of the 
smaller prodm'Ci'.s. In time it is i)robable that a 
pei'manent Wintei* mai'ket will be estal)lished by the 
As.sociation, I'ut at jn-e.sent the arrangement de.s- 
cribed is ]ii‘oving very satisfactoi’y. What has been 
done in Pri>vidence can lie duplicated without doulit 
in most other cities, and establishes the fact that 
co-opei‘ation and com)»etition are not necessarily an¬ 
tagonistic. In the I'rovidence ^Market they go hand 
in hand, and the result is pi-osperity for all. 
E. I. E.VRRINGTON. 
Root-Gall and Fruit Trees 
O^lE years ago a representative of our State 
Dei>artment that has charge of tbe demonstra¬ 
tion fruit woi-k called at my farm. We looked at 
several ]ieach trees that were very dwarf and did 
not grow. We pulled one up. and it had a root-gall 
on tbe main root nearly as large as a goose egg. 
This was in tbe Fall. We cut it off and replanted 
tbe tree. It stood, I think, two years, when last 
Summer 1 noticed the tree wa.s not groiiin.g 
and pulled it ni». and found that it had two root-galls 
about as large :is the one we cut off two years pre¬ 
vious. 
I inillcd up a young apide tree that made very 
slow growth itnd found that the small roots were 
<.(.vered with rtiot-galls about the size of a small 
hickoryintt. I could show you correspondence from 
one of the nurseries saying that crown-gall did not 
interfere with the trees. A great many trees were 
shiiip<"d out the last eight or 10 years affected with 
ihis disease. 1 liurned up at one time several hun- 
di'ed trees which wei'e visibly affected, which I I’e- 
fused to pay for, and settled the matter in that way. 
I have come to the conclusion that no one but re¬ 
liable nurseries should be jiatronized. and that the 
•Ituyer cannot be too careful in securing healthy trees. 
I might add that 1 have kept a map of my different 
orchards, of the variety idanted and the nursery 
from which jmrehased. and it is inflating to find 
when these trees come into bearing that they are not 
at all true to name. Then again, collar-rot affects 
s.nue vaiaeties to a great degree. It would seem the 
only way to grow such varieties is by top-grafting. 
'I'he varieties that are subject to this di.sease on our 
land are (Irimes (odden. Ring and lallawatei. 
my Falla waters, which I budded myself on seed¬ 
lings. began to die after they had grown about 15 
years. They are an old apple in this section, and I 
know trees that are <10 years ohl and bear big crops, 
but are top-grafted trees. wm. t. cRE.vsYi 
Fennsylvania. 
It. X.-Y.—We would not knowingly idant a tree af¬ 
fected with these galls. f)f course, we know some 
nur.'^erymen insist that such galls ate haimless. 
They undertake to give scientific testimony to prove 
their claims. Imt. all the same, our experience teaches 
us to throw such trees out. Where the order is large 
we would sort out the galled trees and send them 
back for the ]'ro]ier credit. We have had trees sent 
us where examination showed that the galls had been 
cut off and the roots .smeared with mud in oi-der to 
RURAL NEW-YORKER 
di.sguise the wound. The picture at Fig. 24, page 70, 
taken from “Plant Diseases, by ilesler and Whetzel, 
shows how these galls grow on the tree. 
Future of Cotton Crop 
HIS war ar.d wi-ut f^.'llows it will have great in- 
fiuence upon the lutur'^ 'f the cotton croj). The 
Southern part of this country long held close to a 
monopoly of cotton cuPure, but as European na¬ 
tions have xtended their colonies in Asia and 
Afi'ica, they aave made great efforts to increase their 
own sui)pli,-s. (li'aduates of our colleges for colored 
farmers have gone to Africa to organize and work 
cotton plantations. The present war has increased 
this work. The Italians are woi-king to grow cotton 
in Southern Italy and Africa. The French are work¬ 
ing in Afi'ica and the English in Egypt and India. 
It seems likely that liefore this war is ended many 
of these experiments will lie practically succes.sful, 
and we think our cotton growers will have to realize 
what is coming. On the whole we think this will 
be a benefit to the South. That is a natural stock 
country, and with the destruction of the cattle tick 
there will be an immense increase in the production 
of beef and pork. That will benefit the country at 
large and help the South by giving a wider range of 
farm products. 
Beech Wood for Shingles 
I would like to re-roof my house and buildings, and 
not caring for the felt roofing, I shall have to use shin¬ 
gles. The only available wood is beech. How would it 
do to have them sawed into shingles one-half inch thick 
and 10 inches long, makin'^, when laid, eight inches to 
the weather ■:* ^Vould these shingles give service for a 
few years? j. n. x. 
Xewfane, Vt. 
HROUGIIDUT the country districts shingles ai-e 
one of the most universally used roof coverings 
and have many excellent qualities. They are warm, do 
not require a specially framed roof; in fact, they per¬ 
mit the use of a less amount and poorer quality of 
sheathing than almost any other roof covering. They 
take stain readily and ea.sily lend themselves to any 
decorative effect, making a pleasing roof, one that 
blends well with the general effect of th^ homestead. 
In addition, if a shingle roof is well laid of good 
materials on a roof of the proper pitch (one-third 
])itch or greater) its life and service will compare 
favorably with almost any othci' type of roofing, and 
it will give this service with very little attention. 
The woods used for shingles are usually taken 
fx'om the cone-l»earing trec.s, cedar, pine, etc., being 
good examples. The shingle has to give very exact¬ 
ing service. It is placed on the most exposed por¬ 
tion .of a building, one hour saturated with rain¬ 
water and the next exposed to a burning sun. It 
has to meet wide temperature and moisture ranges, 
and if it is to make a good roof it must do this Avith- 
cut splitting or warping, and Avith very little shiaiik- 
ing and sAA'clling. The AA'oods of the conifers, as sug¬ 
gested above, are suited for (»utdoor Avork. As a 
cla-ss they shrink and sAvell, Avarj) and check less 
than The so-called hardwoods. Avhich are more suited 
for indoor finish. The addition of a good creosote 
stain Avhen laying Avill tend to produce a still longer 
life, and here again the soft Avoods are ahead, as their 
structure permits them to absoi’b moi’e of the pre- 
.servative. A maintenance-of-AAiay engineer of the 
XcAV York Central lines tells me they calculate the 
jiressure treatment of their ties and bridge timbers 
AA'ith creosote oils doubles their life so far as decay 
is concerned. Of course the brush or dipping treat¬ 
ment available to the farmer Avill not be (luite so 
effective, but it puts a big addition on the life of ex- 
jtosed AvoodAvork. 
Hard Avoods. becau.se of opposite qualities from 
those mentioned above, are not suitable for shingles. 
In addition, the labor of laying them avouUI be a 
great deal more, and Avith the present scarcity of 
suitable help, Avith its attendant high price, this 
should not lie overlooked. It Avould seem to me that 
if there is any market for the beech logs at all it 
Avould be better to sell them and buy shingles made 
from a suitable Avood. The perfect trunks could 
he sold for lumber and the culls AA'orked up into 
Avood Avhich in this section at least brings a good 
price—green AA’ood 10 inche.s in length retailing as 
high as $4.50 per cord. 
The Brooklyn Cooperage Company have immense 
stave-drying sheds at their plants in the Adiron- 
dacks. AA'hich are roofed Avith bari'el staA'os laid as 
shingles. This question Avas referred to the man¬ 
ager <if one of their plants and the folloAAing leplj 
received: 
These sheds are shingled with cull beech, birch and 
maple staves, thoroughly steamed and cut 11 o2 inch 
thick and .30 inches long, laid S inches to the weather on 
a roof with a pitch of 45 degrees. By laying 8 inches 
to the Aveather we get about four laps of staves in the 
;10 inches, Avhich is a fair Aveather protector for aii*- 
January 1!), lOI? 
drying staves, but no good for any other purpose. The 
staves Avarp so badly that the suoaa’ drifts in through 
openings, and their life is only about eight yeai*s, and a 
poor roof during this length of time. We Avould not 
.advi.se anyone cutting beech into shingles for the aboA'c 
voason.s. Beech logs sell for $14 per 1.000 feet. Scrib¬ 
ner rule, along our railroads or at our mill. Beech is 
the poorest of our hard AA'oods to Avithstand Aveather 
after it is sawn or made up into anything and exposed. 
For this reason Ave do not think it advisable to manu¬ 
facture beech into shingles. 
The Scribner rule mentioned is said to be a very 
fair method of measuring small logs Avlien they are 
to be cut up by means of a circular saAv, and the 
table may be had complete in the "Woodman’s Hand¬ 
book.” Forest Service Bulletin No. o<5—a book 4t4x(>t/(. 
inches, containing 208 pages tif lumbering informa¬ 
tion. It may be obtained upon application to the 
V. S. Department of Agriculture, the price being '25 
cents. 
From Iowa to New York 
We have been ansAvering a number of the advei-tis*'- 
ments in your paper of different persons having farms fo 
rent and sell, and for some cause Ave do not hear from 
them. It may be that they have applications from closer 
range and that they hardly Avould consider a Westerner. 
If Ave can get the right kind of a deal avc Avould like to 
rent a small farm, or Avould buy if aa'o could (leal Avitli 
someone Avho Avould give us some fin.-incial backing. We 
are of the class “back-to-the-lander,” but avc have been 
on the farm before; in fact, Avei-e raised on a truck and 
corn farm, and the Avriter is still doing his bit in iielp- 
ing to supply the family table Avith garden truck for 
year's supply. We see no advantage for a young couple 
to stay in toAvn and be in an office, Avhen avc realize tbat 
the farm has greater opportunities to serve the nation. 
You see here in loAva land Auilues arc bi-yond the reach 
of a poor man, and Ave have been reading so mucli about 
those cheap lands in the East, and believe that that 
AA-ould be about the best place to land on. av. ii. ii. 
loAva. 
I) judge from conditions in my oavu loc.-ility, 
there lias been a sloAving-up of tbe demand for 
cheap X"eAA' York lands. Tbe back-to-tbe-soil move¬ 
ment has received at least a temporary clieck. This 
is easily accounted foi* AvIien one considers tbe tre¬ 
mendous demand for labor at all industrial centers, 
and the high Avages paid. The back-to-the-land move¬ 
ment thrives in times of business depression, Avhen 
men in offices and shops find themselves lo.sing their 
grip on their positions and facing old age, out of a 
job. It Avanes Avhen ordinary labor can command 
from tAvo to four dollars a day, and the skilled 
tradesman is in demand at Avages that seem almost 
fabulous. 
There are still any number of farms on the market 
at prices that .seem cheap to the corn belt farnu'r. 
though the prices that are pr.id for these farms by 
the Middle Westerners usually seem anything but 
loAV to the native. Taking into consideration the 
terms upon Avhich these farms are generally sold, 
hoAvever, the price received by the oAvner is proliably 
none too large; a cash payment down, the greater 
part of AA-hich is likely to be retaiiu'd by tlie farm 
agent as his fee, AVith the balance on long time and 
rather more than a fair prospect that the farm Avill 
return to its original oAvner Avithin a very feAV years. 
Cheap XeAV York farms arc still capalile of sup¬ 
porting families, if the families knoAv hoAV to get 
their support from such farms. The methods that 
must be used are so different from those prevailing 
Mississippi-Avard that one frecpiently Avonders at the 
temerity of the Westerner Avho sells his bottom lands 
to buy XeAV York tops. Farming on these cheap 
hill lands is imtteriiig business, and, if one cannot 
])utter profitably, he aa-ouIcI better keep off from tlumi. 
The gang pUnv of the West must be exchanged for 
the light Avalking ploAV of the hills Avhen the farmer 
from loAva turns the soil of his iieAV imrchase, and 
the team of heavy Percheroii horses Avhich he brought 
AA'ith him might better lie exclianged for one of 
medium-sized mules. Instead of hogging doAvn his 
corn in the fields he Avill carefully gather it into his 
barn, and, after husking, dole out the ears ratiier 
gingerly to such stock as his place Avill support. 
Such operations must appear j-ather triflng to one 
accustomed to the Avholesale Avays of tlie prairies, 
but it is only by making the tritles jiay and then 
bunching them that the Easterner has clung to 
his hills. 
Don't get the idea, hOAvever, that all Xcav York 
lands are cheap. We have some of the best in the 
Avorld, and also some of the most expensive. The 
better grades are ordinarily the best purchase for 
anyone capable of farming at all, and, if one isn’t, 
he Avill lead a precarious existence on the cheap land. 
Granting a knoAvledge of land values, Avithout Avhich 
no one should attempt to purchase a farm, the West¬ 
erner in XeAV York Avili get about Avhat he pays for, 
and if he buys a farm for nothing doAvn and long 
time on the balance, it Avill ordinarily not take him 
long to discover the reason Avhy. >i. b. n. 
