618 
,-uxl (lie clamoring for improvement projects is some¬ 
times lusty enough to cause some delicate figuring 
as lu lm\v te make an equitable distribution of the 
annual expenditure. But t-liis was not always so. 
The good fortune came when it gradually began to 
dawn on ihe citizenship that good roads were an 
asset and not a luxury or incubus on the local ex¬ 
chequer. A good sport is one who is willing to have 
faith to believe that money put into such a venture 
will not take permanent flight. Let the Yankee 
doubters come up into Wayne County and inquire 
farm prices on improved roads, and the matter will 
Ik- settled instanter. If one desires to sell, in this 
section, the farm is already half sold if it connects 
with an improved road. Practically the bulk of the 
inquiry for farms links up good roads with schools 
and churches among the requirements. 
BENEFITS OF EXPENDITURE.—There is no 
denying that it costs money to have these good 
things. No taxpayer here would have one think that 
i< does not. But the same taxpayer would think it 
suicidal to return to the old system. After all. it is 
the dividend that counts, and no Wayne County 
farmer once getting a good taste of the long string 
of benetits accruing from a good road system would 
think of reverting to the old way. It would he some 
task to compute the number of motor trucks in any 
of the towns of this section, as the list is changing 
almost daily during the placing season. The number 
is certainly surprising, and it now looks as though 
a prediction of “a truck on every fruit and vegetable 
farm" could he made without the pro]diet- being sized 
up as a shallow visionary. 
THE SOCIAL SIDE.—Aside from the direct bene¬ 
fits in accessibility to markets by reason of good 
roads t here is the social side, seldom properly weighed 
up. yet so important that it often transcends most 
other considerations in the final deliberations of 
selecting a farm site. An interesting illustration of 
this was shown when Hie State highway on Route "0 
came to tin* edge of Sodus from the west, and there 
rested until funds were available and the contract 
let for its resumption, a few years later. To the 
east was a had stretch of dirt road, neglected for 
years because of expectation of State aid. AN bile 
this situation existed it practically cut. off the 
eastern section of the township from participation 
hi tlie affairs of mutual town interest. Tn everything 
that, meant getting the joy out of life by slipping 
away from one's immediate environment those resi¬ 
dents were at a marked disadvantage. From the 
larger affairs of the township, always pulled off in 
the leading village, they were cut off by a disgraceful 
highway condition. This condition is now remedied, 
the State highway finished, and when the Farm 
Bureau or the high school has a public date one can 
see many faces from that previously isolated section. 
EFFECTS OF ISOLATION.—The queerest speci¬ 
mens of humanity the writer has ever seen have 
almost invariably been those dwelling on the par¬ 
tially developed, isolated farms on roads of infre¬ 
quent travel. Often has he been curiously gazed at 
as though it would he a long time before another 
human being would pass along. The most ample 
supply of any valuable thing counted on a farm that 
such a man possessed seemed to bo that of time. He 
was utilizing about 10 per cent of ins capabilities 
and growing stagnant in a thankless effort to eke 
out an existence, with the odds against him. In a 
few cases the writer has seen people with means go 
in and buy two or more adjoining isolated farms 
with had dirt, roads connecting them with the ship¬ 
ping station and storages, and by means of contri¬ 
bution and co-operation with the town h'gliway de¬ 
partment help to put through an improved stretch 
of highway, sometimes going five miles out into the 
country. No big growei of fruit or vegetables in 
this section would think of increasing his holdings 
and developing crop production to its maximum 
without first knowing he would have a proper outlet 
through good roads, even if it meant going down into 
Ms own jeans to supplement that which the town 
highway department might make available for the 
project. What the big growers do personally the 
smaller ones can do collectively, whether in New 
York or New England. New England can have a 
highway system comparable to that of New York if 
she simply wills it. a. h. puiaer. 
Quarrying Whetstones 
Can voir tell me how whetstones are cut out? 1 have 
a whetstone ledge where the stones have been taken out 
in years past. It is said they were the best stones 
known. I would like some way of getting them out. as 
I think I could sell them. I can saw them with common 
hack saws, but would like some quicker way. How 
would an emery wheel do to finish them on? Any in¬ 
formation in regard to their manufacture would be wel¬ 
come. B - G> 
Vniliamstown, Vt. 
Tht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
F the inquirer wishes to got out a few whetstones 
for his own use, or possibly for a few of his neigh- 
hoi's, probably the hack-saw method is the best that 
can be suggested. But if lie wishes to go into the 
business upon a commercial scale he lias a job before 
him. Tn the first place his quarry will need to he of 
stone of just as good quality, or a little better, than 
that of his neighbor, and right here lie will have a 
pretty formidable competitor at Pike Station. X. H. 
Then the stone will need to ho near the surface and 
to incline just tlie right way in order to permit easy 
quarrying. Provision for power will need to lie 
made. Then the road from the quarry to the mill, 
and from the mill to the shipping station, should he 
oil tin? down grade, to allow easy hauling. lie will 
need an equipment of specially devised machinery 
costing fully $20,000. and a force of men skilled in 
working that particular kind of stone, and. more 
than all else, he will need one or more salesmen capa¬ 
ble of selling the stones. These men and his work¬ 
men must he paid weekly, but he must allow his cus¬ 
tomers four months’ time on their accounts, and he 
jrust have the necessary capital with which to do 
this. If these are essentially the circumstances of 
tin* inquirer lie may he in a position to begin opera¬ 
tions. 
But tlie stones of all quarries differ among them¬ 
selves in character. Aside from minor characteris¬ 
tics, some are laminated, and some are not. Some 
have cleavage and some have not, and some have 
both laminations and cleavage, while others have 
neither. Each type requires a different equipment 
Improv' d Highway at Sodus, N. Y. Fig. £38 
and different methods of working, hut essentially the 
process is about as follows: First the stone is blasted 
from the quarry in large chunks. These chunks are 
worked into blocks of a convenient, size and shape by 
means of chisels or saws or wedges, according lo tin- 
nature of the stone. Then they are again worked 
into slabs by means of belt or jig saws, and these 
slabs are again cut to the required size and shape by 
means of gangs of small circular saws. Lastly they 
are smoothed and the corners rounded by being held 
against wheels of steel or emery or carborundum, 
and, by the way. carborundum is rapidly taking the 
place of the natural stone for many purposes. 
The inquirer would best communicate with Prof. 
G. II. Perkins of Burlington, Yt., who is the State 
Geologist, but lie should remember that very few 
men can jump from the farm into a prosperous and 
successful manufacturing business at a single leap. 
His best plan will be to lease the quarry for a term 
of years and, in the meantime, to study carefully all 
the details of the business. c. o. okmsbee. 
A Back Road Farm 
O many come to The R. N.-Y. with their prob¬ 
lems and have them solved, either by tlie editors 
or the readers, that I venture mine. We have a farm 
of a little less than 100 acres, which lias been in our 
family for over half a century. My father owned it 
before me, and his father before him. Now circum¬ 
stances. among them poor health, seem to make it 
best for us to sell. But when prospective buyers 
come to look at it they inform us of something which 
we had not dreamed of as being an obstacle, but 
which most seems to regard as little short of a calam¬ 
ity—it is not located on a State road. Must we all 
April 23, 1921 
“Live in a house by the side of the road 
Where the race of men g ► by.” 
The place itself lias no objectionable features. The 
house is one of the substantial kind so much used 
about 1800. The barns were built about the same 
time. We are not so far back after all, only a mile, 
but as well not go to the circus as to be on the out¬ 
side of the main tent. One man said “I like the way 
your land lies, to the south and east. It would be 
worth $175 an acre if it were on the “State road.” 
That “if.” 
Now it seems to me there are about as many argu¬ 
ments against as for a State road location. We 
know people who fairly dread the Sundays and holi¬ 
days with tlieir procession of motor vehicles, tin* 
noise, confusion and ever-increasing toll of accidents. 
Then there are the petty annoyances which they have 
to contend with. A friend of ours whose fields all 
lie along the State road estimated a year ago that 
the thefts of potatoes and cabbage could not lie cov¬ 
ered by $100. Another family came home one Sun¬ 
day evening to find that the eggs had all been care¬ 
fully gathered: also two young roosters which had 
been confined in a coop were missing. They had 
gone, presumably, to he the centerpiece on some city 
dinner table. Another man had been pasturing two 
calves on the side of the road. They disappeared 
over night. Motor trucks make this easy. Then 
there are the chickens ran over and killed, etc. We 
suffer none of these annoyances. I'll admit there are 
certain advantages. For instance, one can get out 
with the car oftener, in Winter and in Spring when 
country roads are muddy. But, take one year with 
another, we run our car nearly every month the year 
through. 
Regarding the autoists, our local blacksmith says 
it is the beginning of the end. He quotes Scripture 
to'prove ins case: “Even to the time of the end, 
many shall run to and fro.” Be that as it. may, it 
would seem that the tiling is carried too far. I 
would far rather go off the State road one mile, oi* 
three miles or four miles, and get good soil, than to 
buy a second-rate farm “on the front, seat”—a farm 
that is on the market every few years. And yet 
many will buy and do buy these farms where they 
can’t raise 100 bushels of potatoes to the acre. Yet 
they would rather invest there than here where we 
average 200 bushels to the acre. 
The census figures tell us that half or more of the 
people now make their homes in the city. Must the 
remainder of us all build along the more traveled 
roads, where we can watch them ride past? Are- 
thinks we will pay a hi"h price for the privilege. 
New York. b. b. 
Plowing Cover Crops in Oregon 
N page 183 D. AY. P. asks about turning under 
green crops. Out here our open Winters give 
such a growth on tares and rye that by tlie time the 
ground can be worked they are anywhere from -1 to 
0 ft. high and much tangled, and sometimes down. 
The most successful method i have found is to mow 
them with a mower, removing the divider, and going 
tlie opposite way to the plow. Then with a sharp 
rolling cutter they will turn under all right. Do not 
get too far ahead with your mowing, as the greener 
the grass the easier it will cut. One advantage in 
mowing is that if a straw catches on a harrow 
tooth it does not pull the sod over. In disking and 
harrowing, always go the same way you plowed, and 
the danger of dragging out straws will be lessened 
and the furrow more completely turned, instead of 
being drawn hack. If one does not have a mower 
perhaps the roller is the next best, only in rolling go 
the same way as the plow. The main thing is to get 
the straw lying lengthwise of the furrow, and a good 
sharp coulter. s. t. w. 
Forest Grove. Ore. 
The Cat in the Grocery 
If you see a cat sleeping in your grocer’s window 
with a fruit exhibit, tell him he will lose your patron¬ 
age if it occurs again ! 
HAT is tiie advice given by Prof. E. A\ McCol¬ 
lum. Hie highest authority on recent investiga¬ 
tion in foods and nutrition. AVe think the cat, like 
tlie rat, is a carrier of disease. Of course, we real¬ 
ize that in saying this we run against the opinion of 
many people who regard the cat as almost a sacred 
animal, and cannot bear to have an ill word spoken 
against “pussy.” The facts of science are rather 
stubborn things, and they seem to show that while 
the cat has some economic value as a vermin de¬ 
stroyer, she is still practically an untamed animal 
and undoubtedly a carrier of disease. She is many 
years further removed from civilization than the dog. 
