1532 
return on the money as any. As regards amounts, 
generally speaking, use what you can afford of good 
fertilizer, up to a ton to the acre. Probably 500 to 
3,000 pounds to the acre will give value received. 
This is provided the land is well fitted and other 
conditions right. The use of commercial fertilizer 
is more or less money wasted unless it caps all 
other efforts that should properly be made to get a 
good crop. In other words, don’t depend on fer¬ 
tilizer to take the place of tillage or good seed, etc. 
The manure should be used on corn, and commercial 
fertilizer preferably on potatoes. For oats some¬ 
thing like a 2-S-2 or a 2-10 will be good. Acid phos¬ 
phate alone does pretty well for oats, especially after 
the manure supply begins to come. In buying fer¬ 
tilizer one can generally save money by home mixing 
of chemicals. However, it has been a problem to 
get the chemicals for the last two years. In fact, 
this last Spring it was nip and tuck to get any 
fertilizer in this region. This is another thing that 
forehanded men will buy before Spring. The use 
of lime is one of the best things that could be done. 
Every foot of the region in question needs lime, and 
returns good profits in clover and legumes for the 
money invested therein. I would strongly recom¬ 
mend lime to be used as the new seeding is devel¬ 
oped in the rotation. Lime can be bought to advan¬ 
tage through the local Farm Bureau. About the 
only caution is that it is not advisable to use it on 
land that is going directly into potatoes, on account 
of scab. Basic slag is very beneficial if it can be 
bought at a reasonable price. It has been impossible 
to get lately. 
AMOUNT OF STOCK.—I p to 20 cows can be kept 
on 40 acres tillage. That is not to say that this 
number is the usual thing, nor that they could be 
kept on this particular farm. This is being done in 
this region, though of course it. is exceptional. The 
amount of stock that can be kept depends more on 
the land, the management and on other farm con¬ 
ditions, than on the direct number of acres. Ten 
good cows can be kept on this farm in good shape, 
in due time. Forty acres of tillage with about eight 
to 10 cows is the average proposition in New Hamp¬ 
shire. More cows than that means more than a one- 
man business, and in turn necessitates usually more 
land and all-round new scale plan of operations. 
Five to eight good cows will probably be about the 
plan for a butter business on this farm. If there is 
a market for cream, more cows may be wanted in 
time. In my opinion the selling of cream is greatly 
ahead of butter from the standpoint of profits. That 
has been the experience of men through this State 
universally. If you can sell cream, don’t figure on 
butter. 
BREED OF COWS.—In this connection it may 
not lie out of place to mention the matter of cows, 
if your product is to be fat, my preference would 
be for Jerseys or Guernseys. There will immediately 
be an argument from the Holstein men on this 
point. The Holstein is all right. I have no argu¬ 
ment to make. My opinion is simply that you will 
make more money in the region in question selling 
fat,- if you keep Jerseys or Guernseys. The real 
point here, however, the vital, all-telling factor, is 
to start with high-producing stock. Get a cow or 
two that will give results in the pail—that will pro¬ 
duce real butterfat in quantity enough to mean 
profits. Your dairy future depends on this thing. 
The country is alive with cows that never have and 
never can pay a dollar of actual profit. If you have 
$500 to buy five cows with, don’t do it. Take your 
money and buy two cows instead. And get stock 
that has something back of it besides its tail. You 
will understand the force of this advice in five years, 
if you do not now. A cow must sell around $150 
worth of milk or fat the coming year to make a real 
px-ofit. 
CONCLUSIONS.—In spite of all the mistakes that 
can happen and the failures and disappointments 
that can come along to farmers, nobody is making 
any mistake to look ahead in this direction. There 
is no finer plan that a man can make for his future 
and his family. A man with a farm paid for is 
entrenched for life. He is the most stable individual 
in the whole community; practically nothing can 
dislodge him. He can have a living fit for a king; 
he is his own master. And there are few more 
satisfying things—if one is so minded—than plan¬ 
ning and developing a farm enterprise. There is as 
much enjoyment about looking fox-ward and antici¬ 
pating events as in actually living them. And there 
is no doubt about things coming out right if x-eason 
and care and intelligence pi-evail beforehand. There 
is no doubt that there is a good possibility in a fai-xn 
selling ci-eam, keeping eventually purebred stock, 
feeding calves, hogs or hens (preferably the latter), 
; -rowing potatoes or soxne cash crop in addition, 
i know a man in Westenx New Hampshire who keeps 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
.Jt. 
12 Jerseys, selling butter, and makes a labor income 
of above $2,000 annually. It can be done; the main 
thing is to do it right. a. r. genttng. 
New Hampshire. 
The Future of Wheat Growing 
One-half the wheat produced in this country is 
grown on a strip of land just West of the Mississippi, 
stretching from the Canadian line to Texas. This 
Handy Type of Apple Picking Ladder. Fig. J/82. 
strip includes Minnesota, the Dakotas, Nebraska, 
Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Texas. Grain pro- 
duetion in, this country has traveled with the pio¬ 
neers. For many years it was considered that the 
nation’s bread must be produced on new land, while 
butter was to come from older land, recovering 
through dairying from the effects of continuous grain 
farming. At one .time Connecticut was the leading 
corn-growing State, and New York was far ahead 
Homemade tSpud for Peeling Tan Hark. Fig. .}SJ. 
in wheat production. Just after the Revolution it 
was claimed that Albany was sure to become one 
of the greatest American cities because the Mohawk 
Valley and regions beyond would always produce 
wheat for the world! As the pioneers pushed west 
wheat-gi-owing went with them, and the Eastern 
States became accustomed to the expensive plan of 
October 2, 1020 
having flour and grain carried hundreds or thou- 
sands of miles to them. For we came to regard 
wheat as a "bonanza” crop, fitted to large operations 
and not as a ci-op*in a farm rotation. That ins 
been the past history of New England, New Yorl- 
ainl the Middle West. The same thing is now work¬ 
ing out beyond the Mississippi. When South Da¬ 
kota was first settled wheat was the most natural 
crop for farmers to take up. It could be easily 
transported and stored, gave quick returns, and was 
a cash crop—an important consideration in a new 
country. In those days it was said that the soil of 
those Western prairies was inexhaustible, and that 
full crops of wheat could be grown for a century 
Now the crop in that State has proved unsatisfac 
tory, and farmers are seriously considering giving 
it up. That is exactly what has happened in all 
new territories where wheat-growing was started 
Sooner or later continuous grain-growing fails. The 
crop must either be abandoned or a change must 
be made in the plan of growing it. Years ago the 
States of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois grew wheat year 
after year without change of soil or rotation. The 
plan failed, and these States fell off in wheat pro¬ 
duction. Then came the more i-ational plan of 
growing wheat as part of a farm i-otation with corn 
clover and oats. Under this plan and the use of 
manure and phosphates the soil came back in fer¬ 
tility and the crops of wheat increased. In 1S19 
these three States produced over 105,000,000 bushels 
while in 1010 the total yield was about 100,000,000 
bushels. We have now nearly reached the limit of 
new land on which wheat can be grown as a con¬ 
tinuous crop. In the years to come the character 
of wheat as a farm crop must be changed. It will 
become more and more a crop foi a farm rotation 
and not as now in the Far West, a crop for con¬ 
tinuous. growth without rest or fertilizing for the 
soil. I his will make a better distribution of the 
crop and make it more practical and profitable to 
grow wheat in rotation on our Eastern farms. 
Tools for Handling Hides 
Where could I procure a few of the simpler ha 
tools to use in handling a hide to make sole or barn 
eather. 1 was thinking that perhaps Mr. Ormsbee eoi 
tell me where I can get a hand skiving machine 
& k k Tr? m t0 trS Pe hi<U ’ S ^ 
New Jersey. 
w. w 
‘VT’OT R hardware dealer can get you the skiving 
machine and the knife from the wholesale firm 
with which he deals. There is little call for such 
tools, and they may not be listed, but the firm will 
get them if asked to do so. 
In regard to the “spud” for removing the bark, I 
never heard of such an implement being put on the 
market by any manufacturing firm. They are 
usually made by the local blacksmith, and the 
accompanying photograph will give an idea of the 
appearance of one. It is made by welding the ends 
of two steel straps in the form of a “Y,” inserting 
the handle of a bi-oken shovel, and bolting together. 
1 he bark cannot well be removed until the new 
giowth of next Spring causes it to loosen fi-om the 
wood. The peeling season begins eai-l.v in May. 
possibly a little eai-lier in New Jersey, and lasts until 
well into August. Oommei-cially the bark is taken 
off in four-foot lengths. A cut is made just through 
the bark and as near the ground as possible. A 
similar cut is made four feet higher, and the two 
are connected by a longitudinal slit. The spud is 
inserted in the slit and the bark is pried off. Then 
1 he tree is felled, and in a similar manner the bark 
is removed, in wide sheets, fi-om the entire trunk. 
'1 he sheets are spread out flat and di-ied for a couple 
of days, and then stacked like cordwood to complete 
the di-ying, and is usually marketed the following 
Wintei*. When the bark peels well bark-peeling is 
one of the nicest kinds of farm work. But after the 
season has partially closed, and the bai-k has tight¬ 
ened. this becomes one of the most difficult and dis¬ 
couraging tasks that I ever attempted. 
, c. 0 . ORMSBEE. 
Now comes another old veteran fake. That is the 
story of boring a hole in a stump, putting saltpeter into 
it and then seeing the stump slowly fade away. The 
thing that will not happen in this program is the fading 
away ! 
We are told that some 25 years ago the fii-st proposal 
for woman suffrage was made to the North Carolina 
Legislature. It was referred to the committee on insane 
asylums! Yet the other day the Legislature of that 
State arranged to admit women voters. 
Here is a question for those individuals who say 
.that democx-acy in America is a failure-—make it two 
questions: 1. In what other country on earth has the 
javerage man a fairer chance than here? 2. What have 
you actually done in your own private life to serve as 
a model for an unselfish democracy? 
