Jtx RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1792 
practice of medicine, v would today be many thou¬ 
sands of dollars better off; that is, our bank accounts 
would have been, in all probability. But we are 
thankful we plunged into farming, with its problems 
and its boundless opportunities in all directions. As 
V. A. says, the social life of the country needs im¬ 
provement. Join the Grange and push it along; 
above all, join the country church and help it solve 
its problems. Brother, maybe you beat me by about 
20 years, but the water is fine; come in. take a 
chance; we, with the help of generations to come 
will place agriculture where it will give that magic 
woi-d “Opportunity” as large a place as will any 
other industry. l. g. waits. 
Rhode Island 
As a Young' Farmer Sees It 
I have read the article by V. A., and it has set me 
to thinking. I am, as Y. A., a young man with some 
education, having been to high school for a few 
years, and am also very much interested in the 
future of farming. Therefore I venture a few sug¬ 
gestions and if I am wrong or mistaken I would 
like to have some one kindly set me right in a frank 
discussion of the situation. 
I am a dairyman, qnd together with my father 
we keep about 70 head of cattle. We do the woi’k 
alone with the help of mother and the younger 
children, and an occasional day laborer. Looking 
at things critically for the seat of trouble I seem 
to think that one of the greatest reasons is, that 
as a general rule fanners are uneducated and ig¬ 
norant, excepting a few. By this T do not mean 
that farmers are illiterate, but look around you 
and count the farmers who have been to college or 
high school, and you will be able to put them all 
on the fingers of one hand, or at the most of both 
hands. If you have more than ten farmers in your 
community who have been to college, or even high 
school, you are indeed fortunate! In my vicinity I 
can put all the high school graduates on the fingers 
of one hand and have room for more. Farm papers 
have done much to instruct farmers, but not enough 
to counteract this ignorance. As a result farmers 
stay home and work like slaves when they should 
be attending League meetings. They keep on working 
day in and'day out without thinking whether they 
will make a profit or not, expecting others the 
(middlemen) to look after their (the farmers’) busi¬ 
ness. 
A farmer figures that if by keeping 10 cows he 
can make a certain profit, then by keeping 20 be 
can make twice as much profit. So bo gets 20 cows 
and works himself almost to death, milking and tak¬ 
ing care of the animals, consequently causing an 
over-production in dairy products. At this juncture 
the middleman steps in and offers the farmer a 
price away below production for bis produce. The 
farmer needing money accepts the offer, thereby 
breaking the market and getting a very low price for 
his labor. In some eases be will show a co-opera¬ 
tive spirit, while at other times he is easily fooled 
by the smooth tongue of the middleman. 
Therefore it is hut natural that a young man see¬ 
ing the almost hopeless situation turns to tin? city, 
where he thinks he can make a better living, as 
labor is more organized. Farm life is nice but be¬ 
cause of the lack of sufficient remuneration for the 
labor done, caused by the excessive profits of the 
middlemen, few young men care to remain on the 
farm. 
In the present situation the college man ou the 
farm i* placed at a disadvantage for a few simple 
reasons. First, because in sheep raising it does not 
take as much brain work as physical work, and nat¬ 
urally a college man is superior only intellectually, 
not necessarily physically. Second, because the price 
of wool, mutton, etc., is controlled by so many 
factors, Nome entirely beyond the individual farmer, 
that if makes a very little difference how much 
education a man has. A college man is needed moi’e 
than anywhere else to lead an organization for 
the marketing of wool, etc. And it is just at this 
place that organization and education are worth a 
great deal. It is for this reason that 1 have emphas¬ 
ized the fact of the farmers’ ignorance. He can raise 
or produce a thing, sometimes very efficiently, but 
when it comes to market his product, he almost 
always makes a blunder of it. As a philosopher 
once said, “Any fool can earn money, but it takes a 
wise man to spend it so as to get the most out of it.” 
Whey don’t farmers stop producing so much and 
look after their marketing end more? It is only 
thus that they can get a living price for their pro¬ 
duct. I hope to see farmers better educated in the 
future, and better able to handle the marketing 
of their products. Joseph tbiolo. 
Greeue Co., N. Y 
A New England Poultry Problem 
1 aru running a poultry farm, the plan of which I 
enclose (Fig. 590). We have 1,150 birds, 700 being 
pullets, 400 breeders and 50 cockerels, Barron Leghorns. 
We have no cows or horses. We plan to raise enough 
green feed for the birds for the entire year. If you will 
look at the plan you will see how much mangels and 
cabbage we have. Field No. 2 has a very good crop. 
Field No. 8 has just started to head. Field No. 10 has 
a fair crop. For the last month I have pulled small 
mangels and fed to birds. Do you think I have enough 
green stuff, or would you suggest I put in more another 
year? We plan to put fields 5 and 6 in cabbage and 
mangels, and as much more as you would suggest. We 
want about one acre for garden. We would like a plan 
for a rotation of crops. We planned on new’ ground sod 
for range each season. Do you think mangels keep 
better put in cellar in October or left until the last 
minute? We have 400 birds that we expect to use for 
breeders: 212 of these are selected birds, one, two and 
three years old. We have 17 birds that we consider the 
cream of the flock. We plan to use them for a cockerel 
mating. These birds have been inbred for several 
years, which I do not like. Can I get another family 
of Barron Leghorns? We have saved from this year’s 
breeding 50 good cockerels,, some of which are extra 
good birds. We want to raise as many birds as possible 
next season. We plan to sell matured pullets. We 
have only eight colony houses. 8x10 feet. We are going 
to put them in field 3, which is sod, and plant part 
of fields 2 and 4 in sweet corn for shade. How many 
rows of corn would you put around it? How many 
more colony houses would you build? Field 7 we plan 
to use for a cockerel range just as soon as we can sepa¬ 
rate them from the pullets. 
Yards 1, 3 and 5 we plan to sow to rye for Spring, 
yards 2, 4 and 0 to sweet corn for shade. I wonder 
whether Sweet clover would not be good as shade if 
given a good start. We could cut it after it had re¬ 
seeded itself and use as mulch in the orchard For fer¬ 
tilizers we have poultry manure and about 250 pounds 
Cutting Dahlias lief ore Storage. Fig. 588 
nitrate of soda. We would like a fertilizer formula for 
each of the evops we plan to raise: garden, sweet corn, 
mangels, cabbage, clover (seeded with oats, perhaps). 
Soil is very light and thin, sandy loam. IIow much 
lime would you apply per acre, on which crops, and kind 
of lime? c. H. B. 
Massachusetts. 
T HE light droughty uplands of Hampden County, 
Mass., will seldom produce a heavy yield of 
beets and cabbage. One year with another you prob¬ 
ably would get about 500 bushels, not counting tops 
and loose leaves, from the two acres used for the 
crops, which is not far from one-half bushel for each 
bird. During the six months or so when pasturage 
would be absent, you could use more bulk forage 
with profit. I would put in an acre of market peas 
and follow with the second crop of cabbage, and 
would haul a half dozen loads of apple pomace and 
store in a tight bin or second-hand hogsheads, which 
can be bought cheap in Springfield. If you live near 
town you may find it possible to pick up a good many 
loads of lawn clippings. 
Raising plenty of cabbage you have a chance of 
striking sonic seasons when it. pays much better to 
sell it than to feed it to stock. Better not put cab¬ 
bage on sod land, because of the cutworms. My 
experience with the upland soil of that section indi¬ 
cated good response to poultry manure and nitrate, 
but with the amount of live stock you keep and fre¬ 
quent rotation from clover sod, you should not have 
to buy much fertilizer. I would apply the nitrate 
to beets, sprinkling it on the drilled rows after plant¬ 
ing and again after thinning. Nitrate is also good 
to push early peas and second-crqp cabbage. You 
will hardly need much lime on that soil if nitrate 
is used, as the soda in nitrate acts like lime, and the 
November 27. 1920 
soil probably is not sour. Tf I wanted lime I would 
buy slag meal, which contains considerable lime, and 
broadcast a ton per acre on the grass and corn land. 
Sweet clover affords some shade and forage, and 
will grow fairly well on that soil, which is easy to 
work and well adapted for quick rotations, but does 
not hold moisture or fertility; it dries out. and runs 
out quickly. 
Mulching will help your orchard. Can you not get 
coarse hay for cutting on some of the brook mea¬ 
dows? A ton will mulch. 100 trees, using 20 pounds 
per tree. A good rotation for your Red clover sod 
will be sod, peas, cabbage and clover with oats, cut¬ 
ting the oats and letting the clover sod remain one 
or two seasons, according to the stand you get. 
You have markets fairly close, and might put in 
various truck crops that would afford refuse food 
for the poultry, but probably profitable operations in 
that line would require more labor and manure than 
are available. Trucking is not worth while unless 
crops are well fertilized and well tended. Your 
poultry, orchards and garden, well worked, will be 
enough occupation for a one-family place. 
The mangels can be put under cover in a moist 
collar any time before hard freezing. Cover lightly 
with earth and they will not shrink or toughen even 
in a dry cellar. Cabbage will keep in pits covered 
with hay or stalks. Supplies for the early part of 
the Winter may be left in a heap under a shed. The 
colony plan is a labor-saver, and I would build more 
colony houses whenove cheap material is available. 
Eight houses are not enough. An inbred flock re¬ 
quires close culling and selection of breeding stock 
to keep out bad family traits and hold the good 
points. With a breeding flock of that size and nearly 
free range you should bo able to keep up the flock. 
However, there are plenty of good half-blood Barron 
strains advertised, some of which ought to nick well 
with your stock. g. b. f. 
Value of A Good Ox Team 
I HAVE been interested in reading the articles 
about the use of oxen on New England farms. 
I bad always used horses or mules until recently. 
In April. 1910, I took charge of a Connecticut farm, 
and found on tlic place an old team of oxen, which 
I was expected to use. 1 needed a team for some 
special woi’k, hauling stone and cleaning up around 
the fences, so I put them at work with an Italian 
driver. lie did so well with them that I bought a 
young team of four-year-old Devons, weighing in 
good flesh about 2.900 pounds. These oxen became 
the pride of the farm, and received from their Italian 
driver care fit for an only child. Every morning he 
would card and brush them so that every hair was 
in place, and they left the stable spick and span, 
with their big horns washed and the brass tips 
polished. 
At plowing and at hauling hay, grain and wood 
they were equal to a good team of horses, while at 
clearing land, hauling stone and in the woods they 
were better than horses. The only job at which the 
horses excelled was wheel-harrowing, and that is a 
killing task at best. At plowing the oxen would do 
just as much work as the horses. When I bad the 
horses plowing in the same piece with the oxen I 
would start the horses when the oxen were half way 
around, and (he oxen would maintain their lead all 
day. even though a newly-hired horse teamster had 
bet lie would pass them before noon. 
In equipment a big saving is made, as a harness 
is not required. This also saves a lot of time at 
each end of the day. besides»saving time between 
jobs when shifting from one implement to another. 
But in feeding is where the big saving is made. 
When for any reason the oxen are not to be used 
for a day or two they may go to the pasture with 
the cows. Also in feeding them in the barn they 
may be kept mostly on roughage, supplemented with 
very little grain. A quart to a quart and a half of 
the same grain I fed to cows was all tlic grain I 
allowed each of our oxen twice a day, with a little 
snack of silage, through the Winter and Spring. 
Shredded corn fodder and hay made the buk of their 
ration. 
During the three years I had that team I became 
an ardent admirer of the humble ox, and I believe 
that a good team of Devon oxen is the best power a 
farmer can have. I am not at all in favor of the 
idea of beefing a good team. I see no valid reason 
for it. A farmer who sells a good team for beef, 
even though be does get more money than be paid 
for them, is wrong; and I say this knowing well the 
argument about “How much they would eat during 
the next few months, and bow easy it is to get. a 
new team.” It is not easy to get a really good team, 
and a good team is too valuable a farm asset to be 
parted with. geokge baton, jb. 
