The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
419 
Notes from a Maryland Garden 
I agree with what the editor of The R. 
N.-Y. says in regard to the fever in the 
South for planting early Irish potatoes 
this Spring. Farmers who are not truck¬ 
ers, and are out of a district devoted to 
the cultivation of market garden crops 
exclusively, cannot seem to understand 
how badly they are handicapped by their 
situation. In the great trucking sections 
of the South, where there is an efficient 
produce selling exchange, the grower has 
the advantage of better freight rates, half 
as much commission on sales and also a 
refund of surplus at the end of the sea¬ 
son. manufactories of barrels and pack¬ 
ages right among them, and cheaper than 
the distant grower can possibly command. 
All these often make a season with fair 
profit to the grower when it is simply 
disaster to the isolated grower. In fact, 
I have always insisted that one should be 
a farmer altogether or a market gardener 
altogether, and that if he wants to devote 
himself to the growing of the perishable 
vegetables and small fruits he should get 
where that is the general business of the 
section, and where organized effort and 
co-operation will be of help. I am get¬ 
ting letter after letter, at first from the 
far South and later all the way up to 
Virginia, stating that the writers were 
going to invest in crops they have never 
handled. Early potatoes have formed the 
greater part of these inquiries, and the 
first thing a Southern man wants to know 
is how much fertilizer and of what per¬ 
centages to use. Then another large class, 
who have been attracted bv *■' ! rices 
for tobacco, want tc ..now all about 
growing tobacco and curing it. Others 
are captured by the peanut fever, and 
want to know all about that crop. Then, 
last Summer, the cucumber crop paid 
wonderfully well, and they are now asking 
about that crop, and also with these vege¬ 
table crops they all want to know to 
whom they should consign their produce. 
Since we here know nothing about pro¬ 
duce commission merchants, I cannot, of 
course, answer that. Our produce is either 
shipped by the exchanges or sold at auc¬ 
tion at the railroad stations to cash buy¬ 
ers who have their cars waiting to load, 
and I have known these men to get caught 
by a sudden slump and to pay more here 
than they get North. Now the first year’s 
effort of a man with a crop he knows 
uothiug about is pretty sure to make a 
failure in some respect. This is espe¬ 
cially true of tobacco. In a section where 
no tobacco has been grown it will be very 
uncertain as to what kind of tobacco the 
soil will produce, for this is a matter of 
soil. The red uplands of the South will 
not make the bright, yellow tobacco, while 
right in the same section there are over¬ 
laying the red clay sections of gray sandy 
soil which make the finest of gold leaf, and 
a little way off the same soil apparently 
will make a mahogany leaf. White Bur¬ 
ley thrives on limestone soil and no other, 
and all midland Virginian and Southern 
Maryland grow a brown shipping tobac¬ 
co. while up in the Blue Ridge valleys 
they grow a fine high-priced black tobac¬ 
co for navy plug. Hence, the new grower 
never knows what class of tobacco he is 
going to get on his soil, and his inexperi¬ 
ence in curing and handling the crop is 
very apt to make his tobacco a nameless 
sort of brand and badly cured. 
As a rule. I have found that the men 
who are everlastingly ready to jump into 
a new crop are the men who have never i 
farmed well with the crops of the section. 
Certain crops become the leading farm 
crops of a region from natural causes, 
which make them best suited to the con¬ 
ditions prevailing there, and the men who 
persistently adhere to their money crops 
and who use their brain in the study of 
ways and means for producing these crops 
in the most quantities an acre, and most 
economical methods, are the men who 
succeed, while the men who read tales of 
wonderful profits in something they never 
grew and know nothing about fail in the 
crops that would bring them money sim¬ 
ply because they have never farmed well. 
When a man in the cotton country writes 
to me he wants to know all about growing 
sunflowers and curing them and selling 
the seed. I know at once that he is a fail¬ 
ure. And when another writes to know) 
all about cucumber growing and harvest-, 
ing and packages for shipping and men 
to sell them, when he may be hundreds of 
miles from a mill that makes the shipping 
Efficient Farm Haulage Equipment 
r V 'HE diversified products and materials to be transported on the 
farm make essential a haulage unit designed with farm demands 
well understood. 
The Magazine 
"TRUCK 
TRANSPOR¬ 
TATION” is 
free to all inter¬ 
ested. Write 
Dept. RN. 
Selden Truck 
Corporation 
Rochester, N. Y. 
The body must be designed to carry all loads efficiently. The truck 
must be built to carry the varied loads over roads of all conditions. 
The All-Purpose Farm Body mounted on a Selden Truck provides 
easily arranged combinations for the most economical haulage of 
machinery, hay, grain, produce, fruit, livestock, fertilizer and ail 
other products. 
"In-Built Quality” keeps the Selden Motor Truck always on the 
job—giving satisfaction under all conditions. 
Literature completely describing this body and truck will be 
mailed with no obligation on your part. 
SELDEN TRUCK CORPORATION 
ROCHESTER, N.Y.,U.S.A. 
Ship by Truck 1%, 2%, 3%, 5 Tons 
—SELDEN Truck All Worm Drive 
MANURE IS DEFICIENT IN 
PHOSPHORUS 
DOUBLE ITS VALUE BY REINFORCING IT WITH 
BARIUM-PHOSPHATE 
ANALYSING 
PHOSPHORIC ACID Grade A 28.00$ Grade B 16.00$ 
BARIUM SULPHIDE 7.00% 7.00% 
MANURE IS NO MORE A COMPLETE RATION 
. FOR CROPS THAN HA Y IS FOR A COW 
Tli- addition of Phosphorus to manure will pay as well as feeding graiii with hay. 
A few pounds of B-P scattered each day in the gutters of your bum will 
DOUBLE THE VALUE OF YOUR MANURE 
absorb alt liquids, prevent the loss of ammonia aud keep the stable sanitary. 
This is a sensible and logieal thing to do. 
WHY DON’T YOU TRY IT? 
Our book. "Phosphorus and Manure," will give you valuable information aloug these 
lines, aud "Cover Crops. Manure and Phosphorus" will show you how to keep a large 
part of your annual fertilizer bill in your pocket. They are free for the asking. 
We cau also quote attractive prices on earload lots of 
GROUND PHOSPHATE ROCK 
AND 
NITRATE OF SODA 
Wither bee, Sherman & Company, Inc. 
2 Rector St., New York City 393 Main St., Worcester. Mass. 
Values 
Booming! 
Land has in¬ 
creased 5100.00 to 
5200.00 an acre in many states. With bumper 
crops and high prices why let land stand idle 
in bush and swamps? One man, one horse 
with a Hercules Stump Puller can clean an 
acre a day! No stump too big—they come 
out clean, leaving land in condition tor 
modern cultivators, tractors, etc. 
Clean Out Stumps—Make Money 
You can buy up uncleared land at bargain prices, 
clear it with a Hercules at little cost, and in¬ 
crease ita value $200.00 to $400.00 an acre! Many 
are doing it. Write us today for full details, cat¬ 
alogue aud introductory price proposition. 
HERCULES MFG. COMPANY 
130 28th St. Centerville, Iowa 
When you write advertisers mention The R. N.-Y. and you’ll get a 
quick reply and a “square deal.” See guarantee editorial page. 
FERTILIZERS AND CROPS by Dr. L. L. Van 
Slyke, Price, $2.50. The best general 
farm book. For tale by Rural New-Yorker 
