Fruit Trees Close to Line 
A Case Complicated by Trespass 
A and B are neighbors. A has a row of apple trees 
growing on his property, but some of the branches hang 
over the line, and fall on B’s land. B claims all the 
apples on his side of the line. Can he claim only those 
that fall, or can he also claim those on the tree, or do 
all the apples belong to A? Can B collect any dam¬ 
ages caused by the apples falling on his side? B’s 
chickens trespass and destroy crops on A’s land con¬ 
tinually. Can damages be collected for this offense, and 
after notifying B can the chickens be destroyed? 
New York. 
T he general rule is that a tree belongs to the 
owner of the land out of which it grows. In 
the case mentioned, if a tree grows out of A’s land 
one foot or more over his line, that tree and all 
that grows upon it belongs to A. The fact that the 
branches grow out over B’s land and hang over the 
line does not give B any ownership in that tree, or in 
the fruit growing \ipon it. He has no right to take 
the fruit from this tree, as legally it does not belong 
to him. If the fruit fall from the tree and rest on 
B’s land, it is generally considered as belonging to 
him. A cannot go upon B’s land to pick the fruit 
from the ground or off the tree, without rendering 
himself liable to a charge of trespass.. 
B, on the other hand, is not justified in shaking 
or beating the fruit from the tree in order to have it 
fall on his side of the line. B could claim those 
apples which fall on the ground, but as stated, he 
has no right to pick the fruit which hangs over his 
side, or climb into the tree to pick them. On the 
other hand. B would have the right to cut off the 
branches on this tree if they grew over 
on his line so as to cause damage by 
shading it too much, but the courts gen¬ 
erally hold that he must not prune or 
cut the tree to such an extent as to in¬ 
jure it. We know of one case where the 
man in the case of B chopped off the 
branches close up to his line. This 
ruined the shape of the trees and caused 
considerable damage to A. A lawsuit was 
started over this, but it was compromised 
out of court by B paying small damages 
to A. It would be hard to see how B 
could be damaged by the apples falling 
on his side, unless they fell upon a hotbed, 
i greenhouse, or some other kind of prop¬ 
erty which could be damaged in this way. 
ft would be necessary for B to prove the 
damage, and u.sually it would be difficult 
for him to do so. It is very much better 
In all such cases to make a fair division 
of the fruit, and let B have a reasonable 
share-of it, because, aside from any legal 
question, thei'e is no doubt that the tree 
takes part of the nourishment or plant 
food out of the soil owned by B. 
In regard to the chickens, a trespassing 
ben would be regarded at law the same 
as any other animal coming upon prop¬ 
erty without permission. There is 
nothing to the belief that a trespassing hen loses 
legal protection and becomes a wild animal to be 
shot at sight. That is understood by some people, 
but it is a mistake, although there are cases where 
the trespassing hen becomes such a nuisance that the 
sufferer will shoot the hen and throw her over the 
line upon her owner’s property. Such an act makes 
aim liable for the value of the hen, while he could 
bring a counter suit for the value of the property 
destroyed by her. A man must take his chance in 
killing such wandering hens. The action usually 
leads to a personal fight or a suit for damages, 
^’^here property is destroyed by a hen, a cow, a horse, 
any other animal, the owner of that property has 
* right to bring suit against the owner of the animal 
vw f^over the damages. 
C»c RURAL NEW-YORKER 
I note that some farmers complain of the damage 
done by the children of tenants. How anyone with a 
family of children can live on a farm-worker’s wage at 
the present time is beyond me. It seems that this 
trouble would take care of itself, because all such labor 
would need to look elsewhere. Such are the conditions 
as I find them on one of the modern and well-equipped 
dairv farms of Central New York. They certainly are 
not such as would hold anyone, and are surely driving 
us away from the farm. Unless we can find a more 
favorable opportunity, we shall have to give up the 
fight. 
R N.-Y.—But can farm employers afford to pay 
• more? Other industi-ies can outbid the farmer 
in the labor market, and thus draw helper’s away. 
How are these other industries able to do it? Not 
one of them is as “essential” as farming. It will 
not answ’er to tell this hired man that 30 years ago 
a farm helper received only $20, and thus he is 150 
per cent better off! It is not a matter of “per cent,” 
but one of the number of cents left when expenses 
are paid! 
1287 
much less loss. These, when in solution and passing 
through the soil, will combine with other elements 
and get into new forms. While they can still feed 
the plants they will not be washed out of the soil. 
In the drainage waters there will usually be found 
considerably more nitrogen than of potash or phos¬ 
phorus. Thus it is rarely necessary to make more 
than one application of acid phosphate or potash, 
since these will not be lost from the soil. As nitrogen 
might be washed ont and lost, it often pays to use 
file nitrate of soda in two parts. 
Stark Apple in the Hudson Valley 
vHE specimen of Stark apple, shown at Fig. 610 
was sent us by L. C. Chamberlain, Greene 
Co., N. Y. These apples were excellent, quite su¬ 
perior to most of the Stark that we have seen in 
the upper Hudson Valley. Mr. Chamberlain tells 
of his culture as follows; 
The orchard where these apples grew consists of 12 
acres of gravelly soil. Trees were planted 16 years 
ago; orchard plowed every year, and a crop of buck¬ 
wheat grown between the trees. We try to get it cov¬ 
ered with barnyard manure every two years, about 12 
StarJc Apple, Grown in Greene €o., N. Y. Fig. 610 
loads to the acre, and use some commercial fertilizer 
also. We only spray once for codling moth ; have no 
trouble to control it if weather conditions allow us to 
get spray just in the right time; never have had any 
scab at all. We have Sutton, Baldwin, Fameuse, 
Lawver and Pewaukee all growing in the same orchard, 
and all seem to grow equally well. The Stark com¬ 
pares favorably with these, some seasons yielding a 
little better than the others, and they ripen about 10 
days later than other sorts. P. G. chamberlain. 
T’ 
The Hired Man’s Story 
t belong to that class which, according to all re¬ 
ports, is fast becoming extinct, the “hired man. At 
east that is the belief of many farmers. As I look 
over the situation, and compare our 11 or 1- or even 
more hours daily, with seven or eight hours on Sun- 
iay thrown in for good measure, with the eight-hour 
lay of the industrial worker, and then let my thoughts 
wander for a moment to the difference in wages, I won- 
ler if I, too, will not soon be forced to return to the 
city and bigger wages. I am forced to this conclusion 
in spite of the fact that we moved to the country with 
the desire of making farming our life work. Here is 
jn example in arithmetic such as comes up in our 
household accounts about once each month, which illus¬ 
trates my point: If a man receives $50 a month and 
Loss of Chemicals Through Drainage 
In general, is it preferable to apply acid phosphate as 
a top-dressing, as I understand to be the case, with other 
chemical fertilizers? Used as a top-dressing, should 
more than one application be made? s. ii. 
HIS question is asked for garden culture. By 
“top-dressing” we mean broadcasting the fertil¬ 
izer on top of the ground and working it into the 
soil, instead of plowing or spading it under. All 
soluble fertilizers, like acid phosphate, nitrate of 
soda, etc., are better applied after fitting the ground. 
They dissolve and spi’ead through the soil in water 
and thus when put on the upper surface and worked 
in lightly will be more evenly distributed through 
the soil. When nitrate of soda is dissolved in this 
way the nitrogen w’orks down through the soil. It 
does not make any chemical combination with other 
elements. If the soil is well filled with organic mat¬ 
ter, some of this nitrogen will be held like a solution 
of salt or sugar in a sponge, and of course the roots 
of living plants wdll take up much of it. What is not 
held in this way will be washed out of the soil and 
spends $12 for coal. $20 for groceries, $5 for pig feed, , , . i i i i i 
$4 for milk, $1.80 for meat. $2 for potatoes. $4.23 for lost. That is one reason why land should be cov 
.. « a nil bnw monv Oflil’.S of sllOeS 
a W. S. S. and 65c for oil. how many pairs of shoes 
can he buy at $5.98 per pair? True, we are furnished 
with a fairly comfortable house (only about 20 news¬ 
papers are needed to stop the cracks in the living room), 
and a plot for a garden of about one-fifth of an acre, 
with time to work it (after work hours, if it is not 
already dark), 
ered with a living crop, especially during the late 
Summer and Fall. In garden culture, where nitrate 
is freely used, it is often good practice to make sev¬ 
eral small applications rather than one large one. 
In the case of acid phosphate aud potash there is 
The “Cootie” and Its Control 
The Scourge of the Soldier 
Part I. 
N OLD PEST.—^The saying that bacteria were 
germs in Germany, parasites in France, and 
microbes in Ireland, finds a parallel in the different 
names given to the body lice now infesting soldiers 
in the great war. The “cootie” or “seam squirrel” 
of the European war is none other than the “gray- 
back” or “army louse” of the Civil War, and is 
known in peace times as the body louse, being di.'*- 
tinguished from the head and the pubic louse, the 
two other forms that infest mankind and make him 
miserable. There has been so much confusion re¬ 
garding these species of lice that examiners of re¬ 
cruits have passed infested men into the service of 
the army and some have passed through the camps. 
WHAT IT IS.—^The cootie is in reality a clothes 
louse, aud remains in the clothes at all times, except 
for the tw’o daily periods of feeding, which 
usually last 20 minutes each. So the ex¬ 
amination of clothes is all-important. The 
eggs may be found along the seams of the 
clothes near the skin of the infested per¬ 
son; these are yellowish white in color 
and are visible to the naked eye. They 
hatch in from four to seven days, but 
when kept in a cool place the hatching of 
the eggs may be retarded for 35 days after 
being laid. It is only very rarely that 
they are attached to the hairs of the body. 
A single female may lay as many as 2,50 
eggs. It is easy to see how numerous lice 
may become, and how diflBcult it is for 
infested soldiers to get rid of body lice, 
particularly where they are .so closely 
associated with other soldiers in dugouts 
and crowded billets, especially where 
changes of clothes and baths are infre¬ 
quent on account of stress of time and 
lack of water. The adult lice themselves 
are white, gray or dark brown in color, 
according to the time elapsing since their 
last meal, and are about one twenty-fifth 
of an inch in length. When well fed they 
live for about one month, but if prevented 
from feeding they die in two or three 
days’ time. 
MEANS of INFEST.VTION.—There are 
many who ask how the soldiers get infested with lice. 
We know that the men of the Allied armies were quick¬ 
ly rushed into service; some of them came from the 
slums of some of the largest cities, and these very 
quickly infested others. It is hard for people who 
keep clean to realize that from three to five out of 
every 100 people in the more thickly populated sities 
and towns of this country are infested with body 
lice, while the number is greater in some of the na¬ 
tions of Europe. It is a common saying that every¬ 
one in the Balkans is infested with body lice. This 
Avas well appreciated by the Germans when they 
sent their troops into the Balkans. They carried 
with them steam sterilizers, and it is said on good 
authority that among the first German presents to 
Ferdinand, then king of Bulgaria, were six steam 
sterilizers. In civil life the numbers of infested men 
found in cheap lodging houses, almshouses and jails 
during the Winter vary considerably with the eco¬ 
nomic conditions. During those years when work is 
harder to find, the vagrants herd in barns and be¬ 
come badly infested. Their presence has given the 
name of “scratch house” to the 10, 15 and 20-cent 
lodging houses that are common in all of our large 
cities. That these people and these houses need 
closer observation and control in most of our cities 
is patent to all those who study social problems. 
A SOURCE OF DISEASE.—Brill’s disease is ty¬ 
phus in a mild form, and is spread by lice. Fortu¬ 
nately, Brill’s disease seldom gets beyond the control 
of the city health authorities of our cities, yet there 
are usually at least 50 cases of this disease every 
Winter in each of our larger cities, and these are a 
menace to the health of the nation. The sanitation 
of cheap lodging houses, almshouses and city pris¬ 
ons .chould be given u more important cousidei-ation 
