W» RURAL NEW.YORKER 
1703 
Notes from a Maryland Garden 
Such ripening weather for fruits and 
corn is seldom experienced. For a week 
past it has been warm enough for August, 
and the days have been bright and sunny. 
AVe are now past the middle of October 
and are liable to have frost at any time. 
The brilliant sunshine has brought out 
an uncommonly fine bloom on the outdoor 
Chrysanthemums. We always get a good 
bloorJ on the early vegetables and on the 
pompon sorts. All of them winter well 
when protected with leaves or rough ma¬ 
nure. The Dahlias of course have been 
in their glory, and are still loaded with 
flowers. 
We are lifting the Irish potatoes today, 
and they have completely matured their 
tops naturally. In most seasons the tops 
of late potatoes, planted in July, grow till 
cut down by frost, but this season they 
have matured naturally, without blight of 
any sort. Some sweet potatoes have been 
dug for use. The crop is miserably poor. 
Now and then a hill produces a great, 
overgrown potato, and then a number of 
plants only strings. Then the puzzle is, 
why a great potato in one hill and hardly 
any in others, under the same treatment 
and identical conditions. 
If our friends in the West have had 
anything like this sort of weather we will 
hear far less than usual about soft corn. 
The corn crop everywhere is fine. Down 
in the Eastern Shore counties of Vir¬ 
ginia the corn, planted after the early 
Irish potato crop went North, is heavy 
niul fully matured. My daughter, who is 
Home Agent in one of the Virginia coun¬ 
ties west of the Bay, says that she hears 
that about 100 women in that county reg¬ 
istered to vote, and that people are taking 
more interest in the price of wheat than 
in the election. And here, while wheat is 
down in price, and flour also, the bakers 
have not discovered it, apparently, for 
they have not dropped a cent in bread 
prices. Then the cotton speculators make 
the miners’ strike in England au excuse 
for still further depressing the price of 
cotton, which was already below the cost 
of production. But the price of cotton 
shirts has not declined a penny. .Tust now 
the farmers are bearing all the loss, but it 
is certain to reach others, and perhaps 
we may reach normal conditions shortly. 
Some day the Southern farmers will get 
independent of the cotton speculator by 
going to farming with an improving ro¬ 
tation, and by growing other crops as well 
as cotton will be able to sell their cotton 
when it pays to sell. Farming for more 
cotton per acre and fewer acres in cot¬ 
ton, more in corn and wheat and clover 
and cattle, will bring lasting prosperity, 
and will make the farmers the masters of 
the cotton market. 
The total dependence on cotton is the 
cause of the present unrest and outlawry 
in the South. So long as the price of 
cotton means distress or prosperity, the 
same conditions will prevail. Here, 
where we grow no cotton, but have a 
variety of other crops, the failure of one 
of them makes the poeketbook shrink, but 
it does not mean bankruptcy. The wheat 
grower is losing money he expected from 
his crop, but he is not burning any mills 
or elevators. He has a big corn crop and 
his usual supply of hogs to eat some of it. 
and he can feed a few steers and make 
manure for his laud. So he keeps his 
wheat in his granary till a change for the 
better comes. The great difficulty in the 
South is that a very large part of the cot¬ 
ton crop is grown by tenants who own a 
mule and a plow, and take a piece of 
land to cultivate iu cottou on shares. 
Then to feed himself and his mule 
through the cropping season ho makes a 
mortgage on his share of the prospective 
crop, and the merchant selling goods on 
this crop lien adds a bouncer of a profit, 
of course. Wheu cottou drops, as it has 
now, it takes all the tenant’s share of the 
crop to settle with the merchant, and 
there may even be a shortage: the tenant 
faces Winter penniless and his mule must 
find a living on the range. This is where 
the cotton price affects the South. The 
mortgaged cotton of the croppers must 
be sold, and this “weak” cottou is the 
usual cause of low prices in the Fall. 
Back of foreigu demand may keep the 
price down and cause much real distress 
in the South. In the long run the cotton 
cropper would be better off working for 
■wages. w. F. MASSEY. 
ft 
Did the first frost catch you 
with some corn 
still out?” 
The Western Electric Power 
and Light Outfit is a strong 
arm on any farm. 
"Harvest is a time of worry and hard wor\ 
to us farmers — and we don’t always get 
the crops in either. Time is short and help 
can’t be had. Anyway, that was my fix up 
till this year, when I put in a Western 
Electric Power and Light Outfit. Of course 
this outfit doesn’t do any field wor\. But 
the work it does do saved so much of my 
time that I ivas able to get all my corn in 
before the first frost.” 
Mr. Griesemer is a fanner near Griesemer - 
mile, Berks Count)/, Pa. 
M 
'AYBE you have done bet¬ 
ter in getting farmhands to 
work for you than I could. 
In recent years I’ve been a sort of a 
farmhand and chore boy 
rolled into one. I was 
co busy milking cows, 
grinding feed and 
pumping water that I 
couldn’t get through all 
my work in the field. 
“Not long ago I began 
to notice the good work 
done by an electric farm 
plant belonging to one 
of my neighbors. It 
gave all the light need¬ 
ed, but what I liked even better 
was that it was a powerful plant, 
built with the idea of doing a man’s 
work. 
An outfit that 
saves time and labor 
"The name of this powerful plant 
was Western Electric, and because 
I be ieved it would give me the help 
I needed, I installed a Western Elec- 
The portable 
motor makes 
churning easy 
trie on my farm. The story of what 
it did may interest you, if you need 
help too and if you believe an electric 
outfit should supply power even 
more than light. 
“Western Electric 
power milks the 
cows for me. 
There’s half an hour 
a.day saved right 
there. It also pumps 
water to my house 
and barn. Then I 
have a line shafting 
belted to the pulley 
on the engine, and 
belted to this shaft¬ 
ing is a feed-mixer, 
fanning-mill and 
grindstone. I tell you, that engine 
can handle a lot of work. The 
powerful battery gives all the light 
needed, and it runs my wife’s 
washing machine and pumps the 
water. 
“So you see, Western Electric 
power is saving me a lot of time. 
When harvest came around, I was 
able to work about three hours more 
in the field every day. That is why 
I got all my corn safely in.” 
The battery lasts longer ! 
The reason the Western Electric 
battery lasts so long is that it is 
charged without stress or strain. As 
it fills, the rate of flow becomes less 
very gradually till the current stops 
by itself. This “tapering charge” 
means long life to the battery. 
For more information about the 
powerful Western Electric Outfit, 
send a postcard for booklet RN7. 
The nearest distributor to you will 
be glad to furnish it. 
ai 
With Electric 
power you can 
have running 
water all the 
time. 
Western Electric distributors in your neighborhood : 
C. H.&J. T. Kelly. 
Elmira, N. Y. 
C. U. DcVoe. 
Syracuse, 7. Y. 
Theodore M. Cunlher & 
Sons, Buffalo, N. Y. 
Warden £ Smith, 
C-tskill. ,7. Y. 
D. G. Babcock, 
Lake Huntington, N. Y. 
Perry L. Young, 
Green, N. Y. 
RustcrholU Ehctric Co., 
Erie, Pa, 
D. & F. Engineering Co., 
Ogdensburg, N. Y. 
Amos Barnes, 
Ithaca. N. Y. 
L. C. Beers Electric Store, 
Rochester. N. Y. 
For territory (till available write to Western Blectric Co., New York 
Western Electric 
Power S' Light 
Makes the Battery last longer 
His s e oidl*i%h t JL Roofing Products 
Why build to burn? Use Galvanized Roofing for 
farm buildings—and good Tin Roofs for residences. 
Apollo-K KYSTONt Galvanized Shoots not only excel for Roofing and Siding 
purposes, but are specially adapted for Culverts, Tanks, Spouting, and all ex¬ 
posed sheet metal work. Keystone Copper Steel Roofing Tin Plates also give 
unequaled service. Sold by leading metal merchants. Look for the Keystone 
below regular brands. Shall we send our valuable “Better Buildings" booklet? 
AMERICAN SHEET AND TIN PLATE COMPANY, Frick Building. Pittsburjh, Pa. 
t the hair do with the hic& 
Specialists in twining Horse. Cow, 
Calf or any kind of hide with hair 
or fur on it. We make robes, 
■coats, caps, gloves, muffs, tugs, 
etc.,toyourorder. You save money 
and we save your furs. Free cata¬ 
log of sty lish fur garments; Free- 
instructions for handling furs. Fur 
garments and goods of all kinds 
repaired and made like new. 
We mount Live and small jvne. boi* *ad 
fish. Write today- 
f{A)CHESTER, FUR DRESSING CO. 
655 WEST AVE. 
‘ROCHESTER JN.Y. 
