1262 
scale of living. In these business transactions he 
must be able to take in more money than he pays 
out. else he cannot provide his children with cul¬ 
tural opportunities commensurate with present 
standards. Education for the farm boys and girls 
is Usually expensive.' High school and college is 
likely to take them so far that they cannot board 
or room at home. Even household conveniences, like 
electric lights and running water, cost more in the 
country than in the city, hlit they are none the less 
appreciated. 
REVERSION TO FOREST.—Considerable amounts 
of land have been cleared in New Hampshire that 
recent social and economic changes have rendered 
unprofitable for anything except the most extensive 
agricultural practices. That such tracts are revert¬ 
ing to pasture or even to forest is not to be deplored 
but approved. Wood and timber constitute together 
the third most valuable product of New Hampshire 
farms. They are especially important from a busi¬ 
ness standpoint, because they supply profitable Win¬ 
ter work. This is a time of year when other remun¬ 
erative enterprises are hard to find. If agriculture 
in. the United States ever becomes intensive enough 
to make the plowing of these lands again profitable, 
they must be cleared. We cannot afford to cultivate 
them until that time comes. We shall do well to 
devote our energies to farming the better soils and 
more favorably located areas and to raising forests 
elsewhere. 
LOCAL CONDITIONS.—Every agricultural sec¬ 
tion of the country has its own peculiar crops and 
animals, and methods of husbandry. Those adapted 
to one State may be unsuited to another. Farmers 
have been carrying on some of the greatest experi¬ 
ments that the world knows anything about. They 
have been trying to learn to co-operate with Nature 
in order to gain a maximum allowance for her store¬ 
house in the soil. The practices of real farmers in 
any community are not likely to be fundamentally 
wrong. The best of such men are conducting a busi¬ 
ness which suffers nothing from would-be critics of 
less experience. The Western farmer cannot criticize 
an Eastern farmer until he has learned the new con¬ 
ditions. The successful man of the city may know 
practically nothing about the problems of farming. 
City business deals largely with men and mechanics; 
rural business with natural conditions, over many 
of which man has no control. One may be a good 
salesman, but he cannot argue the milk out of a cow; 
he may be a good organizer, but his hay will not 
make when it rains. 
GOOD FARMS.—What, then, are the opportunities 
in New Hampshire? Along what lines may the re¬ 
turning soldier, or any other person confronted 
again, or for the first time, with the problem of 
choosing a line of endeavor, be reasonably sure of 
success? In the first place, he should purchase a 
good farm. Good farms in New Hampshire are 
worth money, like similar ones in other places. Such 
farms are not likely to be over-advertised in the 
daily papers, nor to be listed for any long period of 
time with a real estate agency. On the other hand, 
one should hardly bargain for a typical "Summer 
home,” and really expect to make a living on it. 
Some so-called farms, apparently of good report, 
offer better vacation land than crop land. They 
command good prices from persons who can earn 
enough money elsewhere to find pleasure in con¬ 
trolling a country place on which to spread it during 
their leisure time. This is not mentioned to dis¬ 
parage the importance of such undertakings in the 
State, but merely to serve the farmer as a word of 
caution against buying property at. inflated values, 
or accepting too many agricultural practices from 
such as these. Finally, one would better buy a good 
farm and mortgage it for half its value than to 
limit his possibilities by trying to fit an undersized 
pocketbook. m. gale Eastman. 
(Continued next week) 
Preparing Corn Land for Wheat 
THREE-YEAR ROTATION.—I believe that the 
cost of producing wheat can be lowered con¬ 
siderably by growing wheat in a three-year rotation 
of corn, wheat and clover. In this rotation the corn 
ground is seeded to wheat after it is thoroughly 
disked. In other rotations we have used, with corn, 
oats and wheat, it is always necessary to plow the 
oats ground and to work it down. The saving on 
this labor alone would make considerable difference 
in the cost of producing wheat. 
EARLY MATURING CORN.—We grow an early 
variety of corn—a white-cap strain—which will 
mature in about 110 days. Thus it is possible for 
us to go into the cornfield early in September with 
the corn binder and quickly get the corn into shock. 
The RURAL NEW - Y O RKER 
Then we aitt} to follow with the disk or spring-tooth, 
depending upon the condition of the soil, and then 
follow with the grain drill, using about two 
bushels of seed to the acre and applying from 200 
to .300 pounds of acid phosphate as a fertilizer. 
During the Winter we usually top-dress with manure, 
using six to 10 tons to the acre, depending upon the 
amount of manure available and the amount of land 
we have to cover. If we have a certain amount of 
acreage to cover we aim to cover each acre with the 
same amount of manure, thus using a light dressing 
over the entire area rather than a heavy dressing 
over a few acres. 
GOOD RESULTS.—Last year our corn-ground 
wheat, fertilized with acid phosphate and top-dressed 
with manure, averaged about 31 bushels of wheat to 
the acre. This we do not regard as extremely high, 
but when we find it rather hard to grow from IS to 
20 bushels to the acre in a rotation of corn, oats, 
wheat and clover with additional labor, we believe 
the corn-wheat-clover rotation to be best. Of course 
the clover-corn-wheat rotation is used to a great 
extent, but in our section of Ohio such a rotation is 
not so commonly used. One thing that surprises us 
in a way is that our comparatively hilly and rolling 
lands are quite well adapted to this practice. There 
is some trouble, of course, in getting corn ground 
ready for wheat when it is weedy, but with the cut¬ 
away disk the weeds are fairly well chopped up 
before the drill goes in. and T believe that the wheat 
could be seeded even more satisfactorily if the disk 
drill rather than the hoe drill would lie used. 
'Wayne Go.. O. c. m. baker. 
Observations on Producer to Consumer 
Selling 
SUCCESSFUL VENTURE.—Once more we 
have tried the business of selling farm produce 
at the roadside and once more have found it good. 
Vi e have just finished a very successful “bargain 
sale" of new Early Michigan potatoes, and while 
tired and aching—every one of us.—yet we are $200 
and more to the good and have secured a 10-acre lot 
t f good will, plus much local reputation to boot. It 
all happened this way: For several years we have 
sold our surplus potatoes at the gate, but never 
seriously considered getting rid of an entire crop. 
This July, as everyone knows, potatoes blithely 
soared skyward and the ultimate consumer, as usual, 
was aghast. We had planted two acres—half in early, 
half in Fall tubers—and thought to clean up a fair 
profit, the State crop being reported early in the 
game as extra short except in our immediate vicinity. 
The grocers in near-by Norwich were selling South¬ 
ern stock the first of August at So and 90 cents a 
peck, or at the rate of $3.50 a bushel. So the other 
day we called these dealers on tiie ’phone and en¬ 
deavored to sell them our early crop, or part of it. 
at $3 per 60 pounds. Absolutely nothing doing. They 
were shocked and amazed that the presuming farmer 
should ask $3 a bushel for home-grown potatoes, even 
though the market then was firm and predictions 
were that “spuds" would be worth their weight in 
gold later on. No, sir! They would not think of 
paying $3 a bushel, but they might condescend to 
pay us $2 delivered. This time we refused to 
take them up, however, as the market was still $3.50 
retail, so we decided to throw ourselves on the mercy 
of the little roadside sign, “For Sale.” plus a “pro¬ 
ducer to consumer” want advertisement in the 
Norwich daily paper—and sell the consumer direct 
at the easy price of $2. We advertised. The con¬ 
sumer came. We made a good profit, even at $2, and, 
I believe, earned the everlasting gratitude of count¬ 
less housekeepers without gardens, and in four days 
the early crop had been harvested and sold right at 
the door. 
A BARGAIN SALE.—The want advertisement, 
costing a dollar and run for four days, read like this: 
“Producer to consumer—New potatoes for sale. $2 
a bushel. Call at the farm and bring your own con¬ 
tainers. Any quantity. Willcox, North Norwich; 
Bell 14F31.” And from the first it was a riot. 
Remember that potatoes were then retailing in this 
potato section at over $3. Remember that the thrifty 
housewife rebelled at paying this price, worth it or 
not. Remember that we lived on the State road, six 
miles from town, and you will not be surprised that 
four handsome limousines, three big touring cars and 
several trucks and the like were picturesquely 
grouped in our yard at once. It looked like a 
farmers’ picnic. This happened every day of the 
“sale.” and at 10 o’clock each night we were still 
turning away the cars, which, to a last one. insisted 
on leaving their bags for filling next day. The first 
two days two men dug, while the children and I 
August 30, 1919 
picked up. But we could not begin to get enough 
out of the ground to supply the demand, so three 
men dug like mad after that. And how delighted the 
buyers were at their “bargain.” And how they 
“cussed” and discussed the naughty grocers—guilty 
or not—.whom they accused of profiteering. One 
lady in a fine limousine assured me that a friend of 
hers had seen a farmer one day drive into town 
laden with new potatoes, and she had gone out at 
once to try to get some. But before reaching him a 
big grocer had rushed to his wagon and said, “Come 
right in here. I'll take all the potatoes you’ve got. 
and all you want to bring.” The woman, chagrined 
at seeing her prey snatched away in front of her 
nose, hung around until the farmer emerged and 
inquired at what price he had sold his precious 
produce. “Two dollars a bushel.” “And then,” said 
our customer of the limousine, “my friend supposed 
of course that this grocer would sell those potatoes 
for $2.50 a bushel, or around there, but did he? lie 
did not. The price remained at $3.50 retail, and that 
farmer got $2 of it. We think this man should be 
prosecuted for profiteering on a necessity, and are 
very grateful to you people for permitting us to buy 
potatoes at a reasonable price. The grocers will be 
the ones to lose by their greediness!” Well, it 
seemed to us as if the grocers must have felt a slack 
in trade, but probably they would not admit it. 
A FEW LESSONS.—e noted and learned several 
new things about roadside trade this season. One 
was that the majority of people taking advantage 
of the reduced price could have afforded to pay 
almost any price for potatoes, while the class need¬ 
ing to economize most—the hundreds of often-broke 
people—were conspicuous by their absence. Several 
bank presidents, several heads of big businesses, 
many retired men of means and leisure—these wore 
among the ones who drove up with their old sacks 
to saie a dollar—and they are coming again next 
yea r! 
TELEPHONE BUSINESS.—Another thing, we 
answered our telephone on the minute and kept 
strict track of the orders so given. This reminds 
me of an advertiser at cabbage-planting time who 
wished to sell plants for setting. I called up one 
day in accordance with the number given in the 
advei tisement and inquired the price per thousand 
of his plants. A woman, without doubt, answered 
the ’phone. No, she didn’t know the price of the 
plants, and furthermore, her tone of voice said very 
plainly that she didn’t care. No, she didn’t know 
when her husband would be in (and didn’t care). 
Later I called up again, thinking that it might have 
occurred to her to get this information as the adver¬ 
tisement specified, but no, she had a soul above 
cabbage plants, it was evident, and was terribly 
bored at my insistence. If that woman answered all 
tier husband’s inquiries as she did me, it is pretty 
certain that you could put what lie sold in tea. She 
would antagonize the most long-suffering customer 
in the world—and was too lazy and shortsighted to 
appreciate that her own pocketbook would stand the 
loss. It pays to take care of the telephone calls, and 
the company is right when it asserts that “the voice 
with the smile wins.” It does not cost a cent to 
make friends over the 'phone with a cheerful, cour¬ 
teous voice, and the consumer appreciates it. It also 
pays to be just as smiling and courteous to the cus¬ 
tomers face to face, for they are going to remember 
the price, and the people, perhaps, long after the 
potatoes are forgotten, and next year the price, the 
quality and the treatment are each going to count 
in your favor. 
WEIGHING AND SORTING.—We, of course, con¬ 
formed to the law by weighing each bushel, and 
patrons were incidentally requested to remember us 
as potato producers in succeeding seasons. We sorted 
also, and the little ones were picked up to feed the 
stock. While we didn’t try it, 1 have no doubt that 
the culls would sell for 50 or 75 cents a bushel, at 
present high prices, if one wanted to offer them. 
Many cooks like the tiny new potatoes for creaming, 
and they are certainly as good as any for this pur¬ 
pose, or for boiling up to feed the laying hens. It 
doesn't pay to put in too many small ones. Ours 
were very good size this year, but the yield impaired. 
Yes, we believe thoroughly in the producer to con¬ 
sumer idea. Earlier in the season we sold cabbage 
plants by sign and want ad. which amounted to $100. 
With an easy location, good goods, fair prices and 
courteous treatment, a farmer has an ideal way of 
disposing of his surplus in almost any line. The 
want ad. and a big roadside sign play a very im¬ 
portant part, and a reputation once made is more to 
be desired than pearls and diamonds. 
New York. 
HELEN S. K. WILLCOX. 
