‘Ihe RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
Keeping the Main Roads Open in Winter 
W AR-TIME WORK.—We read during the war 
of the .successful efforts of private and State 
interests in keeping the main overland trunk lines 
open during the months of heavy snow, and how 
traffic was thereby enabled to move over long dis¬ 
tances. thus adding its bit to the winning of the war. 
In the writer’s county, nothing of the kind was nec¬ 
essary at the time, as we have no great factories 
whose produce had to he rushed to the waterfronts 
at any cost. But the idea was being quietly assirn- 
• Early Crawford X Elberta. Fig. 78 
Shaped like Elberta; yellow, freestone, good quality; 
ripe about one week before Elberta. (See page 350) 
ilated, it would seem, and this Winter the automobile 
interests decided at the eleventh hour that it would 
be a fine thing to keep the State road open to motor 
vehicles. 
TIIE TRIALS OF JANUARY.—As will be remem¬ 
bered. cars encountered no difficulties in running up to 
Jan. 1. but with the arrival of a good old-fashioned, 
regular Winter, the roads quickly became impas¬ 
sable to power-driven machines, and. willy-nilly, the 
latter were obliged to retire to their various garages 
to hibernate until Old Man Weather had had his 
fling. This condition of affairs lasted throughout 
January, and the cars which traveled short distances 
into the country on the State road were venturesome 
indeed, and usually ended by being towed back by 
the faithful horse, which, we are assured, is soon to 
become utterly obsolete. But during the latter part 
of January the motor interests became very restless 
at their enforced confinement, and decided that some¬ 
thing must be done. So they got out a strong little 
baby caterpillar tractor, several teams of horses, the 
town road scraper, and “went to it.” 
UNSATISFACTORY SERVICE.—It required a 
Belle X Greensboro. Fig. 79 
White freestone; oval in shape; bright color; ripening 
about with Carman 
full week to plow, scrape and level live miles of road, 
and then it was not safe to traverse. Previously, the 
road had been well filled with snow, but the milk 
teams had made the track fairly decent and the 
sleighing was passable. During the above men¬ 
tioned “improving” the big milk-route teams encoun¬ 
tered vast difficulty in making their trips over the 
road, and as the track was anything but smooth, and 
was made to fit automobiles instead of runners, tip¬ 
ping over was daily threatened and the going was 
made extra hazardous and slow. The idea was to 
open the road to motors for a distance of 12 miles, 
between two large villages, and as it took'a week to 
get five miles into half-way negotiable shape, during 
which time this track was practically impassable, 
several farmers delivering milk were not in sym¬ 
pathy with the movement, which, limited as it was, 
must have been very costly nevertheless. The point 
I would make is, that if our roads are to be kept 
open to all traffic with no sleighing hereafter, the 
operation should commence at the beginning of snow¬ 
fall and not wait until the track is drifted full, with 
a consequent greater effort, expense and risk.at clear¬ 
ing if. Very likely farmers would be glad to co¬ 
operate to the fullest extent if the main highways 
were kept open by the proper authorities from one 
end of cold weather to the other, but what they do 
object to are the risks and hardships suffered while 
the clearing out is under way, and when the tracks 
are spoiled for both sleighing and wheeling for sev¬ 
eral weeks at a stretch. Several of them are also 
wondering if the great expense at this time is strictly 
necessary, inasmuch as there are no very particu¬ 
lar interests which need, serving at any cost, and 
while we can sympathize with the men who hate to 
be deprived of their cars through any part of the 
year, yet up-State in the country, for three months it 
would seem that the expense and labor hardly jus¬ 
tify the results. 
HARD CONDITIONS.—As I write (Feb. 4) the 
road is far from being usable to motors, but gangs 
are daily working to this end, and if the thaw con¬ 
tinues we will soon see bare spots in many places and 
“thank-ye-mums" a-plenty in others. On the other 
hand, if a repetition of our ordinary weather so far 
occurs again, as is practically certain, the roads will 
be full and drifted in 24 hours—and the expense and 
labor of the road openers gone for nothing. As this 
is a big dairy county, there are many heavily loaded 
milk-route teams which must make their early morn¬ 
ing trips in all sorts of weather and going, and who 
hate to see these made unduly hard by the people 
who want to open the roads to pleasure mainly, in¬ 
stead of business. I am wondering if other towns 
could give experiences along these lines, and if. in the 
opinion of the majority, it pays out of war time to 
keep ordinary roads open to automobiles in our 
northern counties, and in such a hard Winter as we 
have just passed. If average sentiment and favor 
votes for the opened State roads, I shall conclude 
that those farmers who are at present opposing the 
movemeut are in the wrong. If. however, each little 
town must pay for this, as I understand is the case, 
should not the work he rushed through, or else be¬ 
gun in time, so that those of us who are obliged to 
carry our milk to market may do so as conveniently 
and quickly as nature normally permits? I should be 
glad to see the matter generally discussed in your 
columns, if you see fit. iielex s. k. wnxcox. 
Chenango Co., N. Y. 
Plow Less and Pasture More 
GRICULTURAL SHORTAGE.—We seem to be 
long in manufactures and short in agricultural 
production, not only in the United States but in the 
whole world. Population is rushing—not drifting— 
to the cities, leaving the farms without help to plant 
and harvest the crops, to say nothing of cultivating 
them. No doubt the so-called high prices paid in the 
cities is the cause of this, augmented by the show of 
electric lights and painted faces seen on the street, 
but. to get down to “brass tacks.” not much is left 
of these high prices against what the city laborer 
pays for house rent, clothing, food and theater 
tickets in the city. We must eat to live now, and we 
must economize and save to live after awhile. 
BASIS OF PROSPERITY.—Agriculture is the basis 
of all prosperity and the foundation of existence even, 
and it is a pity that young people cannot see the 
beauty of nature and enjoy the manufacture of good 
“pork and beans” on the farm, as well as they enjoy 
running a flivver in town or working in crowded 
basements. Art, or things artificial at least, seem to 
take better than the real models themselves that 
the artificials are patterned after. What looks bet¬ 
ter, or is more valuable, cost considered, than high- 
grade or pure-blood live stock on a well-kept farm? 
By well-kept. I don’t mean a plowed-to-death farm 
owned by an almost worked-to-death farmer. I mean 
a farm that has green pastures of Blue grass and 
Alfalfa, mixed, and with enough stock on it to eat 
a small field of this best pasture on earth off. say. in 
two weeks, and at just the time it should be eaten 
off. or mowed off. to be of most benefit to the Alfalfa. 
This grazing can be assisted by mowing, and it 
345 
should he if stock is lacking to care for the Alfalfa, 
before the growth becomes woody or the plant tries 
to form seeds. In fact. I think it better not to have 
quite so much live stock, and make a business of 
mowing hay from these pastures as regularly as if 
they were not pastured at all; this plan will get the 
old crop off sooner and give you a chance to graze 
an adjoining field while field No. 1 is starting up 
again, as it will do in a few days. 
AN EXPERIENCE IN PASTURING.—But I must 
give you a little of my own experience. On May, 10, 
1!'04, I sowed for pasture eight acres of Alfalfa. It 
Belle X Elberta. Fig. 80 
Spreading type of growth, like Carman 
was a favorable Spring and on the 14tlx of July the 
Alfalfa was knee high and blooming out. I put eight 
Hereford calves and 50 sliotes into this eight acres 
of Alfalfa, but they couldn’t take care of it. Not 
wanting to mow it. I went to a neighbor and got 175 
sbeep, and turned them into the little field, taking 
7he calves off. fearing they would do little good graz¬ 
ing after sheOp. but I put 10 old sows in their stead. 
In two weeks the Alfalfa was only half-knee high, 
and I turned all stock off and cut the Alfalfa close 
to the ground at once. In one week the Alfalfa had 
started up again, and I put the eight calves and 60 
hogs back onto the Alfalfa. It got ahead of them 
again, and I turned in 18 big Hereford cows and one 
Jersey cow, taking the calves off. 
RESULTS OBTAINED.—I kept the GO hogs and 
19 cows on this eight acres of Alfalfa until Tuesday 
before Thanksgiving, in good condition, and the next 
April, this eight-acre field was a beauty spot of pea- 
green color from thrifty Alfalfa. All told, I had on 
this eight acres of Alfalfa the first season 262 head 
of stock, not all at once, but as stated above. I 
should state here that this eight acres was the 
farther end of a 10-acre fine Blue-grass pasture, and 
I turned this half under and sowed Alfalfa in order, 
later, to have the Blue grass and Alfalfa both on the 
same ground at the same time: but the Blue grass 
did not afford much grazing until the second year, 
of course. 1 should also state that the stock had to 
pass back and forth through the nearer end of this 
16-acre pasture, which I had divided with a tem¬ 
porary fence until the Alfalfa was knee-high, or until 
the 14tli of July, as before stated. The stock had 
the Blue grass short by tiie middle of July, and they 
“paid most of their respects” to the Alfalfa end after 
that time. I assure you. This shows what eon be 
done with Alfalfa and live stock, and I am thinking 
I shall try it again myself, as I have lived in Indian¬ 
apolis 10 years, selling Alfalfa hay for more than 
Effect of White Flesh Upon Yelloie. Fig. 81 
At left: St. John; self-pollinated: yellow fruit. At 
right: St. John X White; white fruit 
half of that time, when I could have made more and 
easier money raising Alfalfa, live stock, corn and 
Soy beans, letting the stock harvest most of the crops 
instead of paying high-priced, inefficient help to har¬ 
vest them, often having to do. or undo, the work 
myself, that I paid these transient, trifling, thrift¬ 
less men to do. Let's make farming more respected. 
Indiana. j. n. shibley. 
