‘Ihc RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1508 
and suggests that I avail myself. Personally, I am 
fixed. My good overcoat was bought in 15)07. made 
to order for $25. It i.as had its second velvet collar 
put on. and it will v. ear out a few more—and me. 
! i was cloth made . om virgin wool. This coat has 
been inspected by thousands, and has called up hun¬ 
dreds as good, worn longer or shorter time. 
What 1 want to say is that there is a duty on 
cloth to protect the “infant” manufacturer, and also 
a duty to protect “infant” clothing makers, but the 
English can pay both these duties and sell at half 
the price Americans pay for shoddy clothing from 
the aforesaid “infants." I had an old friend who, 
when liis crop of nice hay was ruined by the rain, 
said: “Things ain’t arranged right in this world.” 
Surely there is something out of gear in arrange¬ 
ments when clothing sells protected at extortionate 
prices, and shoddy is free. 
Grant for argument that home shoddy should have 
no restrictions, this mutilated, mud-soaked, blood¬ 
stained. sorrowful, pitiful, loathsome rubbish, sal¬ 
vaged by the miscreants who caused it. should be 
barred. Instead it is here to make clothing for 
sovereign Americans, and as it is no doubt cleaned, 
and there are 4.000.000 pounds of it. there is enough 
for one million suits, or if used in half proportions, 
two million will wear it. The writer has always had 
conscientious scruples against wearing shoddy, and 
this confirms them. When in the Southland I in¬ 
formed the good folks there that they were wearing 
the cast-off shreds of the poor and lowly “without 
regard to race, color or previous condition of servi¬ 
tude.” but those rags were elegant compared with 
these. 
It is a well-known fact that when men start on a 
down-hill course they generally keep on to the bot¬ 
tom. Shoddy men have deceived the people with 
worthless fibers, sold as high or higher than good 
ones should. This “cargo” is the limit. If the 
“infants” who have made billions off the sheepmen 
and the public are protected, we are determined to 
have a stiff tariff on both shoddy and raw wool. The 
reader can see how easily they get $40 or more per 
overcoat, and if there was a duty of $1 a pound on 
wool, and the grower got the full benefit, it would 
mean but $7 on a virgin wool suit, which you cannot 
now buy under $100, if you can find it afall. 
Again, tariff or no tariff, we are determined that 
clothing shall tell the truth. It. can sell for “all 
wool” all it wants to, but if there is any from the 
garbage heap, or from Germany, it must say so. 
T.ook at the conditions of wool in America, then look 
at the clothing feature. If they will not awaken the 
people, they are dead. Here on one hand is as good 
and as necessary a class of people as can be found 
with the 1920 clip on hand practically worthless, 
because only a little is needed to carry rags. Then 
think of the cost of the depraved clothes worn by 
the people, or notice the class in the show windows 
at the prices with the "per cent off.” 
Also we are determined to have a wider market 
for wool. A little autocracy is all we ever had. It 
is dangerous to commit too much power to any 
humans. They get too gay. Listen to this: “It is 
the talk in the trade that all we need to do is to sit 
tight and get all the wool we need by simply paying 
the freight” That is cheering news to growers 
whose wool cost them more than a dollar a pound 
and are now financially embarrassed. There must 
be woolen mills nearer the sheep pastures. Wool is 
about all sent to the seaboard, with expenses on it 
and returned manufactured. Wool and clothing must 
be manipulated where it is grown, in mills owned 
and controlled by wool growers, and the cloth sold 
direct to the people there who want it. If this wool 
stored all over Ohio was made into virgin wool cloth 
a quarter of a million suit patterns could be sold to 
buyers at a cost of 10 cents each before New Year’s. 
This dead wool market to get the clip for nothing 
is rlie “straw.” Producers in all lines are asserting 
themselves, and wool growers have had more impo¬ 
sition than all others, so we promise ourselves that 
we will grow wool profitably in the near future, and 
lighten the burden of the public at the same time. 
All who learn the cause of the trouble are with us, 
and the press also is giving us a show. Until two or 
three years ago it scorned us and few would listen, 
but the trouble now is so glaring that “enough is 
plenty.” w. w. Reynolds. 
Ohio. __ 
Sand for Fertilizing Muck Soil 
A CTING on a suggestion made in a recent issue 
of The II. N.-Y., that an application of sand 
on muck land would produce good results, George 
Fredericks, Berrien County, Michigan, spread four 
to six inches of white sand on about one-half acre, 
in a four-acre lot, and after preparation planted the 
whole to yellow dent corn on May 15, 1920. The 
seed came up in fine shape, and in a few weeks the 
field made a good showing, but there was a marked 
difference to be noted on the sanded portion over 
that not so treated. I counted two to four fine ears 
of -corn to a stalk, and never saw more thrifty 
growth. Thinking it would interest you to learn 
how your readers take advice and profit by it, 1 
enclose two pictures, made July 23, 1920. by my 
grandson, Richard II. Nelson, an amateur photogra¬ 
pher of a truth, for these are bis first pictures. 
Fig. 477 is the sand treated patch and Fig. 470 is 
that without. james fox. 
Illinois. 
It. N.-Y.—This sand may have been a mixture of 
shell marl, in which case it would have sweetened 
the mink land and also opened it, or made it more 
porous. Plain, dry sand mixed with clay or muck 
will often show results which are quite surprising. 
The Garden Tractor As a Family Affair. Fig. 414 
While the sand does not add much of any plant food, 
it improves ihe texture of the muck soil. By itself 
the muck is solid, damp and inclined to pack hard 
or bake. The sand mixed through it opens up the 
muck and improves drainage and lets in the air. 
The same thing has been observed when sifted coal 
ashes are mixed with stiff clay soils. There is a 
prompt response in crop improvement, and many 
people tire convinced that the coal ashes are rich 
in plant food. They are not, but what they did 
was to improve the character of the soil, and thus 
gave the plants a better chance. That is what the 
sand did on that muck soil. 
The Man on the Hill Farm 
N ATURAL ADVANTAGES.'—In your issue of 
September 4 you wrote a discussion of the 
difference* between hill farmers who succeed and 
those who fail. The differences, as I see them, are of 
two kinds. First, differences in natural advantages, 
and, second, differences in character of the farmers 
themselves. We sometimes say that two farmers had 
an equal start in life, but it is not a fair statement, 
as we know little of each other’s private business or 
private life. Henry Ford finds that the men who 
have an unhappy home life cannot accompish near as 
much work as others who live without friction. If 
this be so, would not this one factor be of more im- 
Tractor and Hand Cultivator Make a Good Team 
Fig. /,75 
portance on the farm, where the work and the home 
are so closely connected? Again, two farms may lie 
adjacent, and yet be entirely dissimilar in topog¬ 
raphy and in character of the soil. The Weather 
Bureau tells us that a difference in air drainage may 
cause a difference of two weeks in growing season 
between two fields on the same farm. 
BUSINESS ABILITY.—Secondly, there is a dif¬ 
ference in ability possessed by different men. The 
press, and too often the agricultural press also, will 
print a glowing account of the success of some par¬ 
ticular farmer. Then they will finish with that old 
bromide, "Mr. - has done nothing but what any¬ 
one else could do.” This is no more a fair statement 
than it would be to give the life of Rockefeller, Car¬ 
negie, Marshall Field, or Ilenry Ford, and then wind 
September 2.7, 1020 
up by saying that all those were failures who did 
not do as well. Point me out the farmers who have 
made conspicuous success, and nine times out of 10 
I can show you some unusual advantage not pos¬ 
sessed by the average man on the farm. 
FARM FAILURES.-—The truth of the matter is 
that to some the Lord gave 10 talents, but most of us 
only received one. Even if we use the one talent to 
the best of our ability. I do not see how we can log¬ 
ically be expected to equal the man who possessed 10. 
The reason that so much is said about failures in 
farming is that they are so apparent. A man who is 
a failure in business life soon sinks and is immedi¬ 
ately blotted out, falling naturally into the laboring 
class. On the other hand, hundreds of farmers are 
failures, yet the nature of the work is such that, they 
can hang on for years, digging a precarious existence 
from the soil. This, I believe, is the reason for the 
low average standard of farm life. 
HILL FARM SPECIALTIES.—1 agree with Mrs. 
Willcox that the valley farms are- much the better 
for some lines of agriculture, but 1 believe for certain 
branches of farming the hill can offer as good an in¬ 
ducement to the energetic farmers if they are on a 
fairly good road to market. Among lines especially 
adapted to hill farming I would suggest the follow¬ 
ing: Especial attention to the production of wood 
and lumber, maple syrup and sugar, sheep rais’ng. 
potato growing and. in some sections, the raising of 
apples or the production of a few beef cattle. In 
any event, try to produce those products for-which 
soil and markets are best fitted. 
Vermont. kennetii ii. atwood. 
Work of the Garden Tractor 
HERE is no question about the demand for a 
light tractor which will do the work of one big 
horse. Our people are constantly writing about such 
a tool. If it could do practical work it would prove 
a blessing on many a small farm where intensive 
work is needed and a horse is not desired. The pic¬ 
tures at Figs. 474 and 475 show what two neighbors 
in a New York town have done T.et one of them 
tell it: 
My neighbor and I went in partnership on a garden 
tractor last Spring, and have a full line of tools with if 
and have had excellent success with it. We plowed 
under a nice 2-ft. cover crop of rye and disked it in 
thoroughly, and cultivated and hilled, and have drawn 
wood and earth, and find no end of useful jobs for it. 
And after our harvest we shall disk our gardens and 
sow t<> rye again this year, with vetch. I am enclosing 
a few little snapshots to give you an idea of what we 
are doing after our day’s work in the shop is done. 
WM. T. MORRISSEY. 
One picture shows the neighbor and his family 
working tlie little tractor. The other shows how the 
tractor and the hand cultivator make it good team. 
Dimensions of the United States 
ITE following figures, given out by the United 
States Geological Survey, will interest many of 
our readers who like to collect facts about this coun¬ 
try: 
The gross area of the United States is 3,02fi.7S9 
square miles. The land area amounts to 2,5)73.774 
square miles, and the water area—exclusive of the area 
in the Great Lakes, the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the 
Gulf of Mexico within the three-mile limit—amounts to 
53.015 square miles. 
The southernmost point of the mainland is Gape 
Sable. Fla., which is in latitude 25° 07' and longitude 
SI 0 05'. The extreme southern point of Texas is iu 
latitude 25° 50'. and longitude 5)7° 24'. Gape Sable is 
therefore 49 miles farther south than the most southern 
point in Texas. 
A small detached land area <>f Northern Minnesota at 
longitude 95° 09' extends northward to latitude 49° 23'. 
The easternmost point of the United States is West 
Quoddy Head, near Eastport. Me., in longitude 66° 57' 
and latitude 44° 49'; tin* westernmost point is Gape 
Alva. Wash., in latitude 48° 10'. which extends into the 
Pacific Ocean to longitude 124° 45'. 
From the southernmost point in Texas due north to 
the 49th parallel, the boundary between the I nited 
States and Canada, the distance is 1.598 miles. From 
West Quoddy Head due west to the Pacific Ocean the 
distance is 2.807 miles. The shortest distance from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific across tin* United States is be¬ 
tween points near Charleston, S. C., and San Diego, 
Cal., and is 2,152 miles. . 
The length of the Canadian boundary line from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific is 3,898 miles. The length of 
the Mexican boundary from the Gulf to the Pacific is 
1.744 miles. The length of the Atlantic coast, line is 
5.500 miles, ami that of the Pacific coast line is 
The Gulf of Mexico borders the United States for 3,MU 
pipes. . 
Xoarlv all maps of the United States show the par¬ 
allels of latitude as curved lines and are likely to lead 
the ordinary observer to believe that certain Eastern 
or Western States are farther north than some ot the 
Central States that art'’actually in the same latitude. 
For this reason, one who is asked which extends farther 
south. Florida or Texas, is very likely to say "i<;xas. 
hut, as stated, the mainland of Florida is nearly «>u 
miles farther south than the southernmost point iu 
Texas. For the same reason, when we consider the geo¬ 
graphic positions of countries south of the Unitea 
States we find that errors are likely to be made in esti¬ 
mating position or extent in longitude. Few realize that 
the island of Cuba, for example, if transposed direct.y 
north would extend from New York City to Indiana, or 
that Ilabana is farther west than Cleveland. <)., or that 
the Panama Canal is due south of Pittsburgh, i a., ox 
that Nome, Aluska, is farther west tbau Hawaii. 
