1710 
stock, equipment, ability, strength or capital. Prac¬ 
tically all their cash was gone! They had signed 
a contract which permitted a grasping owner to 
demand and obtain every cent they could get hold 
of. Every dollar above the most simple requirements 
of living was taken for interest and contract pay¬ 
ments. There was absolutely no hope that they 
could meet their contract when due, and that meant 
loss of all they had. When the Land Bank Loan 
Association was organized the old folks applied for 
a loan. It could not be granted. While with such 
a loan tlie 5 r could have paid off the contract, they 
never could have met the Land-Bank payments, and 
would have been a loss to the association. The Land 
Bank cannot be made a charitable institution. 
Failing to get the loan, these old people tried to 
sell, but found no buyers willing to accept their con¬ 
tract. At last they were obliged to face the positive 
certainty that within 100 days they would be ejected 
from their home and forced to lose everything. To 
be exact, they were still $.1,000 behind on payments 
after all their struggles. By paying that sum they 
could obtain the deed. Failing to pay it they would 
be thrown out, destitute, without even the price of 
carfare to relatives in the West. Some of our 
people, as they read this, will go back in memory 
to similar trials. We can all realize what it must 
have meant to these hopeless old people to see the 
days pass by, each one bringing them nearer to ruin. 
The agent and the owner were not worrying. They 
had taken in something like $2,500 clear and would 
soon have the farm to sell again! They thought 
they had a sure thing—for who among the farmers 
of Dutchess County would ever come to the rescue 
of these old baek-to-tlie-landers? 
In August the County Farm Bureau agent and one 
of the Loan Association directors took a little vaca¬ 
tion. They went through Vermont, and there they 
ran upon a farmer and his son who wanted to buy 
a good-sized farm. These men were interested, and 
came with their wives to see the farm where the old 
people were living. They were satisfied and wanted 
to buy, but had little ready money. There was 
where the Federal Land Bank came in. The farm 
was a good risk in the hands of young and enter¬ 
prising farmers, and the directors of the association 
were ready to recommend a loan. 
Within three days of the time the contract would 
expire these directors met and voted this loan. They 
wired the Vermont man, and he came on with $700 
in cash. There was no possible way to get that loan 
through on time unless the owner of the farm would 
agree to extend the contract Not he! If he did 
that he would lose his chance to seize the farm and 
squeeze another price out of it. He refused, think¬ 
ing he had a sure thing. lie was so sure that he 
had it, that the old folks would default, that he had 
actually rented the farm, to give possession in three 
days! 
And that is where he made his mistake. Right 
there was developed one of those fine instances of 
true co-operation and public spirit that are working 
in farm communities. The buyer agreed to take 
the*place from the old folks for $3,250. That would 
give him the farm and leave them $250 to take them 
to their Western relatives. Then the Loan Associa¬ 
tion directors met at the bank and signed a joint 
note for $2,375. They borrowed this from the bank, 
added the Vermont man’s $700. and then called in 
the farm owner and demanded the contract and 
deed! He “stalled” in every way bo could think of 
to prevent the deal, for there was only one day more 
in the life of that contract. They met his demands 
one by one. and he had to take the money and turn 
over the deed ! 
This is a plain story of a fine thing, a most com¬ 
mendable act on the part of men who assumed an 
obligation in order to help out strangers who were 
in great trouble. These directors are all men of 
modest means, for only a man carrying a mortgage 
can be such a director of a loan association. A 
group of men who will do that make just about the 
finest asset that any agricultural county can ever 
have. They deserve to succeed, and they will suc¬ 
ceed. They have brought a good farmer into the 
county, and they have the satisfaction of knowing 
that they saved something for people who sadly 
needed help. That is the kind of work we must 
have in the new life which is surely coming to 
agriculture. We have had too much of the other 
kind of work. 
The European Orchard Situation 
FTER 14 months of service with the A. E. F., 
traveling through France, Northern Italy, Dal¬ 
matia, up and down the Rhine, Belgium, Holland 
and the British Isles, I am the happiest man in the 
world to be home again with my whole skin. The 
‘The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
orchard situation is like all other matters in Europe. 
It is backward, and it has suffered heavily by the 
war. The old trees have been neglected, ruined, as 
you know all along the weary heartbreaking miles 
where the armies surged back and forth, and in the 
areas where the blast of war did not hit them, they 
stand neglected. Italy seems to have fared the 
worst in the matter of neglect. France next. Belgium 
third, and Germany fourth. 1 do not know how the 
Germans did it, but from what 1 have observed they 
took care of their orchards. T was in Normandy 
during apple blossom time, and found that the old 
orchards are in very bad condition. Little or no 
attempt was made to spray the trees. They have 
not been trimmed in four years. The trees show it. 
Many of them are dying of "disease. Fruit through¬ 
out Europe this year is scarce and high-priced. You 
can buy a quart of wine in Paris for what you would 
pay for an apple. Really you have to go through 
these countries to appreciate the condition. The 
A. Start in the Rabbit Business. Fig. 551 
people are slow to recover from the terrible trial. 
Every home, especially in France, mourns a father 
or husband, sometimes two and three sons. Many 
of the demobilized soldiers are restless and discon¬ 
tented. Life in the rural communities does not 
inspire them. They have lost for the time the spirit 
of work and the love of work. A few concrete illus¬ 
trations may throw light on the subject. The French 
nurserymen this year will have for export to the 
United States less than one-tentli of a normal crop 
of fruit tree seedlings. While visiting with one of 
them at Angers he told me that he did not know 
what he was going to do because of the labor situa¬ 
tion. Men whom he had known for years and em¬ 
ployed were back from the war demanding exorbitant 
wages and short hours. If he attempted to reason 
with them they dropped their tools and walked out 
of the lot. In Italy, where the French nurserymen 
were accustomed to buy their seeds, the Austrian 
and German armies have devastated part of the 
district, and in the rear areas, during the stress and 
storm of war and invasion, the Italians gave up the 
gathering and saving of seeds, as well as the care 
of their trees, with the result that seeds for this 
season could only be obtained in limited quantities 
at enormous prices. This, together with the labor 
problem, will force the French nurserymen to ask 
10 times the price from American nurserymen for 
seedlings this year and next year. Thus the chain 
of rising prices goes on. Only the largest American 
nurserymen will buy seedlings and plant them at 
the price that orchardists have been paying for the 
two-year-old budded tree. ’Phis will boost the price 
of trees to the fruit grower out of sight for many 
years to come, with consequent curtailment of 
orchard plantings. From this it seems clear that 
one who owns a good bearing orchard, likewise the 
one who can start one now without delay, is bound 
to gather a rich harvest. 
Many Americans in traveling through France have 
been impressed with the thorough manner in which 
the peasants use every foot of space in their gardens 
and lawns. Even fruit trees are made to grow along 
the side of their stone houses. Grapevines and 
flowers and fruit trees of all kinds, dwarf and 
standard, fill the spaces that in our American back¬ 
November 15, 101!) 
yards are usually neglected. These small gardens 
have been carefully tended by the peasants, old men 
and women, who stayed at home during the war. 
This is true in France in all the areas outside the 
battle zone. Seeing these splendid gardens, so well 
cared for, one might conclude that the damage to 
the orchard business caused by the war has been 
exaggerated. Closer study reveals neglect of the 
old trees' in the orchard areas. Then, too, all of 
them in the battle zone where the fighting was 
severe were either cut down, blown down or killed 
with poison gas. Even in the areas where the ad¬ 
vance or retreat of the enemy was rapid the fruit 
trees are finished. Horses tied under them chewed 
off the bark, plant diseases thrived for four years 
and poison gas stunted and half killed them. A 
good example of this is found in the Chateau-Tbierry 
area between Soissons and Itheims, where the Amer¬ 
icans fought. Many little village like Cohan, Cou- 
langes, Dravigny. Areis le Ponsant, St. Gilles or 
Courville are still partly standing, although all the 
fruit trees have been ruined. The boys from the 
Twenty-eighth and Thirty-second Divisions will bear 
me out in this. 
Another very important factor in the situation is 
labor. The demand for it to produce and reconstruct 
has caused many trees to be left to the mercy of 
nature, to bo diseased or mot, to grow or die. to bear 
or not to bear. The result is now that good fruit 
is a luxury which only the rich can afford in Europe. 
With the seed and nursery business curtailed, it will 
be many years before the orchard business in Europe 
gets back to where it was before the war. 
MARTIN KING. JR. 
Some Defects in Tile Silos 
A few weeks ago a large hollow tile silo collapsed 
near Elkins, W. Va.. resulting in the loss of 150 tons 
of silage. It is asserted that many silos of the same 
construction are collapsing; that the acid in the silage 
destroys the glazing of the tile, which is followed by 
crumbling of the tile, collapse of the silo and loss of 
contents. I expect to build such a silo next year, and 
also some neighbors, and any information you can give 
on the durability of such construction will be welcome. 
Frostburg. Md. c. A. M. 
OWA Bulletin No. ISO has the following to say 
regarding tile-blocks used in solo construction; 
“In clay blocks there are many grades. These 
variations in quality are due mainly to three causes, 
quality of raw material, method of burning, and 
defects in forming. Brick clays are made up prin¬ 
cipally of two classes of material, one that melts at 
temperatures usually secured in the hottest portions 
of the brick kilns, and one that remains firm at 
these same temperatures. Proper portions of each 
of these classes of material are essential. The for¬ 
mer, called the fluxing material, melts and binds 
together particles of the latter, while the latter pre¬ 
serves the desired form of the brick or block through¬ 
out the burning process. It will be readily seen 
that as the fluxing material fuses it will fill all of 
the space between the other particles, and upon 
extreme heating it. flows out over the surface, giving 
it a glassy appearance. This process is known as 
vitrification. In the manufacture of the blocks, on 
account of their being made up entirely with thin, 
walls, it is necessary to use a clay which is com¬ 
paratively low in fluxing material in order that the 
blocks will hold their shape well during the burning. 
“To make them appear hard-burned and present 
a glassy surface to the weather, clay products are 
sometimes treated externally with salt which, when 
burned, causes the block to have a glassy surface. 
It is evident that such treatment, though protecting 
the block to a certain extent, affects only the sur¬ 
face. The advantage of such a surface, however, is 
not sufficient to compensate for its interference with 
the detection of soft or porous blocks. 
“In some clays are found pebbles of limestone. 
r Phe pebbles after burning absorb moisture, slake, 
swell and chip particles off the block. This defect 
is serious and blocks extensively affected thus should 
not be used. 
“In forcing some clays through the die. parts 
separated by the auger do not properly unite again. 
The result is stratified or grained appearance of 
the fractures, and in a block which should show 
dense uniform material. Frequently otherwise good 
blocks have a slight check in one of the outer walls. 
If this occurs at either end a small amount of mortar 
may be placed inside of the block covering the check. 
However, a block should be discarded if such check 
is large enough to materially weaken it. In all 
kilns the blocks nearest the fire become burned 
harder than the other blocks, and in any kiln only 
a portion of the blocks will be fit for silo con¬ 
struction.” H. F. .1. 
R. N.-Y.—Without question these blocks when well 
made and fully tested make an excellent silo. 
