1742 
ami happiness. Our doors must be locked, places of 
restraint fixed, laws and penalties, officials with ter¬ 
ror for evil-doers and troops carrying implements 
loaded to kill. If sheep were no better than men 
there would be a sheep jail in that pasture and 
a place to electrocute some of the sheep. 
A CONTRAST.—The next thought in regard to 
the picture influenced a change in the form of the 
question. Man is infinitely better. The sheep is 
like a smooth-running, satisfactory machine. Tt can 
make no change nor have any advancement. It runs 
in a track made by nature, and cannot leave it for 
better or worse. It can never be anything but a 
sheep. It is. one of an infinite variety of conveniences 
created for man's comfort, and it must run along in 
the same old rut to the end of time for that purpose. 
Man is confined to no grooves. He can follow “de¬ 
risive courses” as some are doing, or he can work 
to bless himself and the world, and advance towards 
perfection in knowledge and happiness. He is work¬ 
ing that way slowly and surely. The sheep has its 
day. Its destiny ends. It is on a par with all other 
sheep. It cannot bring one iota more of comfort or 
pleasure or have any more joy than they. It knows 
nothing about advancement, in good works or intelli¬ 
gence. and can have no higher hopes or aims than 
a sheep. 
A GOOD WORLD.—I had said nothing about the 
friend who stole our hired man, and compelled 
me to fill his place instead of following other duties, 
but I had hard feelings towards him, and my next 
thought was that man with his free will will some¬ 
times make mistakes. Again, by hopes of advance¬ 
ment he is influenced to do wrong, but the one act 
of a day should not vitiate long years of goodness. 
Early this .morning a hard-faced business man came 
to the door to see if I was sick, because he had not 
seen me for some time. Why. this is a pretty good old 
world. It is full of good folks. Even the men we 
find farthest off the right track by spells carry 
infinitely more of good than evil. The meanest man 
I ever knew saved the life of a good man. The world 
is getting better, regardless of the ebullitions of the 
masses influenced by the war. The results of that 
sorrowful Avar will be good. It was a severe, suc¬ 
cessful operation for gangrene. Also see how the 
hearts of people went out as one for the distressed. 
There will he no wars between American children 
and the children of the Allies. Belgian grandmothers 
will tell their grandchildren, and they will tell the 
story to theirs. 
A HOOD FUTURE.—The next thought influenced 
by this picture while at work today was. this is the 
time of ingathering for the year, and soon Thanks¬ 
giving and the holidays will be here. These are the 
seasons for men to recall that they are brothers, the 
time to “count our blessings.” Compare us now with 
the centuries for millenniums past. Is the world im¬ 
proving? How about the “dark ages,” or any other 
ages? All right, let us run on doing what good Ave 
can. and shunning all evil We can sidestep. Future 
generations will be “kindly affectioned one to an¬ 
other." as sheep are, and will look back at us, pleased 
with the comparison. av. w. Reynolds. 
Ohio. 
Tomato Grafted on Potato 
T the New York State School of Agriculture at 
Morrisville the gardener in the horticultural 
department has grafted a tomato on a potato, and 
succeeded in ripening fruit. The potatoes were 
sprouted in the Spring and the top of a tomato 
seedling was cut diagonally to fit on the potato stem, 
which had been cut in the same way. The double 
plant was grown in a pot, and last week the dirt 
Avas shaken from the roots and the accompanying 
picture taken. The fruit did not seem to be in any 
way affected by the change in blood. When cut and 
served it could not be told from true fruit. This ex¬ 
periment is practical in that there may be a chance 
to get potato tubers Avith tomato foliage, which 
would be resistant to blight and the Colorado potato 
beetle. Certain gardeners in New York City are 
working on this problem and through a series of ex¬ 
periments hope to bring it about. 
THEODORE IT. TOWNSEND. 
R. N.-Y.—These grafts of tomato on potato are not 
uncommon, and of course they have no commercial 
value. The work is often done at the agricultural 
college as interesting work for students. Some years 
ago we saw at a county fair one of these plants, with 
potatoes below ground and tomatoes above. It was 
a marvel to visitors, and many examined the plant 
to make sure the potatoes were not tied on. The 
faker who exhibited it offered seeds at 25 cents each. 
He claimed that such seeds would produce these 
“compound" plants, and that seeds from the tomatoes 
would produce more plants. Fie said it was a won¬ 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
derful new discovery which “would change the en¬ 
tire history of agriculture.” He did a land agent 
business in those seeds. Of course it was a fraud. 
The plant was simply grafted like the one in the 
picture, Fig. 560, and the seeds could not possibly 
produce potatoes. With modern knowledge it would 
be impossible to work such a barefaced fraud among 
intelligent people. 
Why Is Sugar Short? 
Our people have been plying us with questions about 
the sugar situation. We have all been put on short 
rations, and many housekeepers are indignant‘and not 
ready to accept the published explanations. It is not 
A Dangerous Pet. Fig. 559 
necessary for us to detail the hardships and annoy¬ 
ance heaped upon the “ultimate consumer.” Everyone 
knows all about them. The question is why? What is 
the reason for this holdup? 
The II. N.-Y. has gone everywhere in search of the 
facts. We have run upon many wild statements, but 
the following, from the United States Sugar Equaliza¬ 
tion Board, seems the nearest to an actual reason that 
Ave have had. We can obtain no reason for the apparent 
injustice in supplying the big banners and candy makers 
and restricting the smaller buyers. 
W E would give the following as the chief rea- 
ons: Consumption of sugar for the first nine 
months of this year has been abnormally large. It 
has been 600,000 tons greater than it was for the 
same period last year, and 350,000 tons greater than 
the normal pre-war consumption. This represents a 
per capita consumption for the year of about 93 lbs. 
compared with 72 lbs. last year, and 84 lbs. in 1917. 
This is due in part to a large increase in the amount 
Tomato Grafted on Potato. Fig. 560 
of sugar used for manufactured products, such as 
candy and soft drinks, which may be attributed to 
prohibition. 
The Ioav price of sugar as compared with other 
foods may also have been one of the reasons for the 
increased consumption. The wholesale price of sugar 
has been kept at 8.82c per lb. and the retail price at 
11 to 12c per lb., which is an increase of about 18 per 
cent over pre-Avar prices, while most all other foods 
have increased at least 50 per cent. 
In regard to our exports of sugar, they have not 
been any larger than normal. Some misunderstand¬ 
November 29, 1919 
ing has arisen from the fact that we have refined for 
the Royal Commission a certain amount of sugar 
which belonged to them before it arrived in this 
country. As to the army sugar, this has all been re¬ 
leased, and the navy sugar which will be needed next 
year has also been released t- supply hospitals, etc. 
UNITED STATES SUGAR EQUALIZATION BOARD, INC. 
Phosphorus and Manure 
On page 1616 is reference to mixing acid phosphate 
with manure. How will this work where manure is 
piled outside and is exposed to weather until drawn out 
in Spring? What would the loss be? IIow much 
should be added to each manure spreader load? If acid 
phosphate is not used, in what materials can we find 
raw phosphate? g, x. 
BOUT 50 lbs. of acid phosphate to each spreader 
load would be good practice. The phosphate 
can be used in the stable, scattered in the gutters 
and behind the cattle. In this way it will be Avell 
mixed through the manure Avhen thrown out and 
piled, or it may be scattered over the pile from time 
to time. This would give a fair mixing as the ma¬ 
nure was forked over in hauling it out. There is 
always some loss when manure is piled outside and 
left exposed. The chief loss is in the nitrogen—all 
the way from 10 to 25 per cent. There would be no 
particular loss in the phosphoric acid when piled out¬ 
side. Many farmers, especially in the West, are 
using the ground raw phosphate in the manure. 
They get results, though experiments show that acid 
phosphate is more available and quicker. We think 
the new Barium phosphate will be very useful when 
used in the stable or on the manure pile. Our re¬ 
ports show that this material is excellent for us in 
the stable. We think the sulphur which it contains 
will, Avhen mixed with the manure, seiwe to make 
part of the phosphorus available. 
If hen manure is kept dry in a division of the hen¬ 
house, where hens cannot get at it. would the addition 
of acid or raw phosphate cause the ammonia in the hen 
manure to rise, causing injury to the hens? How much 
should be added to each manure spreader load? 
No, the addition of phosphorus to the hen manure 
would not drive off the ammonia. On the other 
hand, it would help to hold this ammonia. Tf the 
manure is kept dry there can be but little loss. 
Such loss occurs mostly from the wet manure. Use 
plenty of dry “filler” beneath the perches, and keep 
the manure well dried out. You can use dry road 
dust, sifted coal ashes or sawdust for this purpose. 
The Barium phosphate ought to be very suitable for 
such mixing. For 1.000 lbs. of dry hen manure you 
can use 350 lbs. of acid phosphate. 
Corn and Potato Questions 
1. I would be much interested reading some discus¬ 
sion as to the heaviest yielding variety of corn on the 
average good corn-belt soil. Everv so often one sees 
something about “show corn.” in which most of us take 
little interest, as we know that it is possible at anv 
time to produce perfect ears and fairly high yields b'v 
planting rather thinly on rich ground. The thing manv 
or most of us are interested in is to find the best “breed” 
ot corn for good farms in the real corn regions where 
we are now growing from 50 to 75 bushels, planting 
three in a hill 4x4. or two in a hill 3V»x3as is the 
usual Maryland custom. Reid’s Yellow Dent does not 
seem a favorite, as it does not seem to yield heavilv 
enough. Many seem to grow Golden Beauty. I have 
heard Funk s ^ ellow Dent highly recommended. 
Farmers north of the southern counties do not seem to 
like white corn, <>n Account of ite longer growing sofison 
and supposed inferior feeding value. We hear a «reat 
deal about 120-dav and 130-day corn, but I notice that 
most farmers plant as close to May first as they can. 
and that they do not cut much corn before October 
first. 
2. I have seen very little in The R. N.-Y'. about the 
effect of ground limestone on potatoes with reference to 
scab. This is an important question, as many people 
keep their land just too sour to grow Red clover and 
grow Alsike, because they are afraid of scab. Once 
cut Alsike clover seems to be through for the season, 
and some means of growing Red clover without getting 
scabby potatoes would be of great interest. I have 
heard the opinion expressed that lime alone without 
manure would not cause scab. o. p. 
T HIS is a question which requires a full discus¬ 
sion from experience. It is not unlike the 
question of suitable fruit varieties; answered pro¬ 
perly only by those who have had a chance to test 
different kinds of corn. We would like to have an 
expression of opinion from Maryland and Virginia 
farmers as for ground limestone on potatoes. We 
think it will depend on the fineness of grinding. It 
seems that limestone can be ground so fine that it 
will have about the same effect as burned lime. A 
coarsely ground limestone is considerably slower in 
its effect. We have had some reports of the use of 
coarse ground limestone in potatoes where the scab 
disease was not increased. This disease would not 
be likely to increase unless the soil was made quite 
alkaline, and the coarse limestone would not quickly 
produce such a condition. Remember that the lime 
does not cause scab at all. It only brings about a 
condition in the soil which enables the scab germs 
to work more rapidly. We have known wood ashes 
alone to increase the scab disease. We think lime 
alone will do it. 
