Good Roads or Land Reclamation 
A Study of Possibilities 
S ECRETARY LANE'S plan to reclaim waste land 
for soldiers will result in increased production, 
with these effects: 
EFFECT ON PRODUCERS.—Lower prices to 
producers without lowering cost of production. 
Result, discouragement of producers; still further 
abandonment of poorest farms; impoverishment of 
those able to come out even: discouragement of in¬ 
creased production on the better farms. Final re¬ 
sult, decrease in production of foodstuffs and general 
discouragement of producers. The effect on general 
welfare would be had. 
EFFECT ON LABOR.—Employment to clear, 
drain or irrigate. Result, wages upheld; possibly 
slightly lower prices for food for a time. Final 
result, when conditions are readjusted, no more food 
and no lower prices: discontent for producer and 
consumer alike. Effect on general welfare bad 
(Bolshevik). Increased production will be at re¬ 
mote points. Result, more business for railroads, 
brokers and middlemen: increase of present evils 
of 35-cent. dollar; no relief in high cost of living for 
consumers. 
A BETTER PLAN.—Mr. Moore’s plan, on page 
637, suggests better roads first to remote points; 
good transportation to and from consuming centers 
and railroads, and 10 per cent time 
saved for production. Results, cost of 
production decreased; selling price in¬ 
creased ; profits possible where none 
existed before; increased profits on the 
better farms; encouragement of pro¬ 
ducers; abandoned farms taken up. 
More crops planted, more fertilizer 
used, better care given; increased pro¬ 
duction of foodstuffs at fairer prices. 
Effect on general welfare would be 
good. 
OTHER EFFECTS.—Employment on 
roads near at home and in every 
county: more men going to rural dis¬ 
tricts and'less congestion in cities: 
better wages and more food at less 
cost. Result, more contentment; effect 
on general welfare good; use of army 
trucks to haul road materials; establish 
routes to and from centers of produc¬ 
tion and railroads; training of army 
men in improved road construction; 
increase of freight on railroads hauling 
road material and increased business 
from general prosperity: increased de¬ 
mand from farmers for goods; in¬ 
creased facilities for distribution by 
motor trucks; less cost of goods and 
more demand for products; automobile 
trade, great prosperity; for every citi¬ 
zen. good roads for business and 
pleasure. Good roads mean better and 
cheaper distribution of crops, products, 
material and goods of all kinds. Closer 
contact between producer and consumer: lower cost 
of living: better distribution of manufacturing and 
industries in rural districts, and less congestion, with 
better living conditions for labor: increased pros¬ 
perity for all. 
SECRETARY LANE’S PLAN.—The final results 
would be discouragement of producers (soldiers on 
new farms included). No lower cost of living for 
consumers. General discontent of both classes and 
nothing to show for the expenditure except 
more farms, counterbalanced by lower price for all 
farms. 
GOOD ROADS PLAN.—Prosperity of producers 
because of possible pi*ofits. Contentment of con¬ 
sumers because of lower cost of living. In addition, 
a splendid system of roads to show for the money 
expended, and to be enjoyed for all time by all the 
people everywhere. Which is the better investment 
for Uncle Sam? Why should not everyone, on every 
occasion, exert his influence to have our Federal 
funds expended on good roads and more and more 
good roads every year, instead of reclaiming waste 
land, building battleships and other shortsighted 
policies? Why not make it a national issue for the 
next election? Both parties are looking for some 
good popular issue to turn the tide in their favor. 
1 venture the prediction that, provided the good 
roads argument is given full publicity, the party 
which will adopt it as the first plank in their plat¬ 
form will win. First, the League of Nations for 
world security, then good roads for United States 
prosperity. 
LOCAL CONDITIONS.—I have just read the 
•Tkt RURAL NEW-YORKER 
article on page 637. by C. M. Moore of Maine, and 
I think it is the very best and most sensible and 
thoroughly thought-out exposition of the subject 
that has yet been published. Conditions are much 
.the same in this township, and it works out as fol¬ 
lows: When a farm cannot be made to pay without 
the owner going without all the comforts, conven¬ 
iences and living conditions which an educated 
American would like to have, for his children, if not 
for himself, he becomes disgusted and sells out. It 
is always a foreigner who buys, and he can make a 
living by farming with brute force and working his 
wife and children and going without the things the 
old owner wanted. This is the competition we are 
having to meet more and more in this locality. I 
have thought a lot along the lines of Mr. Moore, 
and the above is my summary on that subject. 
Pennsylvania. k. p. lovett. 
L 
Community Organization 
OCAL NEEDS.—The vegetable growers of 
Belle Plain, Cape May County, N. .7., have here¬ 
tofore been unable to sell their produce to advantage; 
however, through the organized efforts of the farmers 
in that isolated village, they are now on the right 
road for more profitable farming. The problem of 
the many small farms in that neighborhood is very 
similar to the problems facing thousands of farmers 
Jtat Fed on Gluten Feed Alone. Fig. 201. (See Page HU!) 
767 
PEPPERS IN QUANTITY.—The farmers came to 
realize that the only definite way for themselves to 
develop a profitable business was for all of them to 
produce a certain few vegetables and ship to the 
world’s market in carload lots. The State specialist 
in vegetable growing told them, among other things, 
that the farmers of Newfield. N. J., shipped as high 
as 75,000 barrels of peppers in one season and that 
the growers around Woodruff Station, between 
Bridgeton and Vineland, shipped as high as 40,000 
barrels in one month. Therefore he recommended 
that vegetable as an excellent one for co-operative 
production iyi that favorable section. Peppers are 
relatively inexpensive to grow, they produce well 
on a poor, sandy loam, the crop can be harvested, to 
a certain extent, at the convenience of the grower, 
and peppers carry well in transit. It appeared to 
the farmers of Belle Plain as if the peppers would 
offer them the best opportunity to get started on 
co-operative shipping. Through effective leadership, 
especially of two of their number, Thomas Durrell 
and Q. B. Faure, the farmers in the immediate 
vicinity of Belle Plain have already ordered one 
hundred thousand pepper plants. At each community 
meeting the very best cultural methods are being 
discussed and the method of picking and packing 
will be defined so that each one will be benefited by 
the best ideas of his neighbors, and County Agent 
and state specialists. 
THE RIGHT TRACK.—Surely the 
farmers of Belle Plain. N. .T.. are start¬ 
ing on the right track. By their com¬ 
munity organization the efficiency of 
every grower should be increased; his 
expenses should be reduced to a mini¬ 
mum: the products should be uniform 
and excellent: transportation charges 
should be very low: commission men 
should be glad to handle the large 
quantity of desirable produce; cash 
buyers should be attracted to the ship¬ 
ping point and. above all. excellent net 
returns should be returned to the pro¬ 
ducers, so that the agricultural pros¬ 
perity of the community will be de¬ 
veloped. E. W. DE BAL'X. 
Hat Fed on Gluten Feed with Milk. Fig. 208. (See Page 166) 
all over the country. They were able to produce, 
but it was almost impossible for them to sell their 
products at a profit. Wherever such conditions exist 
the growers become discouraged: they cannot afford 
to pay for costly fertilizers, manure and cover crop 
seed, with the natural result that both farms and 
farmers become poor. 
DISADVANTAGES OF SMALL LOTS.—Belle 
Plain. N. J., is more than 20 miles away from the sea¬ 
shore towns, which are well supplied with vegetables 
from truckers nearby. Furthermore, the seashore mar¬ 
ket is good for a very short time, and it is easily over¬ 
supplied. The village of Belle Plain is on two rail¬ 
roads. but any grower who had ever attempted to 
ship his surplus found that the freight or express 
rates were excessively high on a small lot of stuff. 
Sometimes the grower did not have the proper con¬ 
tainers, or he may not have been skilled in packing 
or grading, and his small consignment to a distant 
commission house may not have deserved very kind 
consideration. However, the farmers of Belle Plain 
knew that they had a productive soil, and they would 
not give up. In co-operation with their County 
Agent, James A. Stackhouse, they organized a com¬ 
munity committee and they held monthly meetings. 
By pooling their orders they were able to make a 
great saving in their purchase of lime and fertilizer. 
Last season the farmers grew tomatoes for a distant 
cannery, because it appeared that the Government 
needed the tomatoes for the soldiers and sailors. 
However, during this last Winter, the farmers have 
taken the most noteworthy steps for their agricul¬ 
tural advancement. 
Ground Limestone and Potatoes 
Where and who is rhe man who says 
we must not use ground limestone on our 
potato patch? I am sending you in a 
separate package by this mail two pota¬ 
toes. One is a nice, smooth, in fact, 
perfect potato. The other is very badly 
disfigured, having rhe appearance of hav¬ 
ing been eaten into in many places by 
something in the soil. These potatoes 
were raised by James Van Tassel in 
Dutchess County. N. Y. On about one- 
lialf of his potato patch, last year, he put 
at the rate of one and one-half to two 
tons of ground limestone per acre. The 
nice, smooth, perfect potato is typical of 
the potatoes raised on the limed portion 
of the field, and the badly scarred, practi¬ 
cally worthless potato is typical of the 
potatoes raised on the unlimed portion. 
Many of the potatoes grown on the un¬ 
limed portion were too badly injured to 
be harvested, and there was not a perfect potato on 
that portion of the patch, while on the limed portion 
every potato was practically perfect. The greatest 
agricultural college man in the country could not con¬ 
vince Mr. Van Tassel that he should not use ground 
limestone on his potato patch. jiartix e. tiiew. 
Dutchess Co., N. Y. 
HIE two potatoes came safely. One of them is 
smooth and fair, with no mark of scab. The 
other has some scab marks, but is deeply pitted or 
eaten by some insect—probably white grub or wire- 
worm. The smooth potato is good evidence that 
limestone may safely be used on potatoes, but we 
do not know whether the seed was treated before 
planting. Several other people have reported good 
results from using limestone on potatoes. A large 
number of readers have reported trouble from using 
burned lime or wood ashes, and while some cases 
like the one reported by Mr. Thew show no damage, 
the majority of our reports run the other way. 
Briefly repeated, our understanding of this matter 
is as follows: Scab is a skin disease spreading and 
developing from a germ. These germs are found on 
the seed—in the scab marks—and also in the soil. 
Like most other germs they develop best in an 
alkaline soil. When sulphur, acid phosphate nr other 
acid substances are put close to the seed the scab 
disease is not so likely to spread. When the soil is 
sweetened by the use of lime the chauees for the 
spread of scab are much increased. 
That is the story as we understand it and the 
advice against using lime or wood ashes is based on 
this theory. When the seed is soaked in formalin 
before planting the scab germs on that seed are 
killed, but there may be more of them iu tl^? soil. 
