What About Modern Education? 
I WOULD like to ask a question: Do you not 
think the country is going too strong on educa¬ 
tion now and for the past few years? It seems so 
to the writer. The boys, and also the girls for that 
matter, must go to school nine months out of the 
year. This keeps them in school with so little chance 
to work that by the time their school days are over 
the boys have no desire to do the thing called labor. 
They spend most of their time waiting for an easy 
job with big pay to come to them, in consequence of 
which a great per cent of them become loafers, 
barely working enough to support themselves. 
There seems to be only a small per cent of the 
boys who go through school that make anything out 
of their education. They are taught so that the 
most useless of them turn out to be loafers, and 
most of the others go to the cities and factories, thus 
leaving the farmer without the necessary help *to 
raise and market his crops. The prices obtainable 
for the farmer's productions are too low to allow 
him to compete with the manufacturers of steel 
and iron products and the mines. bor white. 
Illinois. 
R. N.-Y.—We find, as we go about the country, 
many people of middle age who believe just what 
this correspondent states. Viewed from 
the results of their own life, and looking 
at the past, they are right. The future 
belongs to youth, and some of us who are 
to have no great part in it may not be 
fully competent to judge. We will prob¬ 
ably remember, if we think about it, that 
in our own youth the elders felt much 
the same about our own education and 
prospects. Looking back upon it, wo 
can all see that our “education” did 
not educate us for anything in par¬ 
ticular. The associations surrounding 
that education were better than those 
of today, because life was simpler and 
“easy money" did not have such a hold 
upon society. We think one great 
trouble with our present school system 
is that it does not try to fit the child 
for anything in particular. The graded 
school fits a child for high school, the 
high school fits him for college and the 
college fits him for some “advanced 
study.” If the child drops out along 
the way, he has no tools of education 
to work with. Most of our public 
schools do train the child away from 
practical farm work. We believe that 
our modern system of education is re¬ 
sponsible for much of the present feel¬ 
ing against farm life. There are 
localities here and there where the schools have been 
conducted so as to benefit farm life in every way. 
1he RURAL NEW-YORKER 
potash. Probably phosphorus is the needed element 
on most of our American soils when nitrogen is sup¬ 
plied. The most natural reinforcement for hen 
manure is some form of phosphorus, and the most 
economical method of handling the manure is to 
prevent the loss of ammonia. This is done in two 
ways—mechanically by keeping the manure as dry 
as possible, and chemically by using some dust or 
drier that will make a chemical combination with 
the ammonia. Gypsum or land plaster will do this. 
It is a sulphate of lime. The ammonia in the 
manure takes the form of a carbonate, which is a 
gas. and will escape if the manure is kept warm and 
damp. Dust the land plaster over the perches daily, 
and when the manure is scraped off add more 
plaster. Keep the manure under cover in a dry 
place. Thus kept, in the Spring it will be found in 
dry, hard chunks. Smash these up as fine as pos¬ 
sible by striking them with a heavy spade or club 
on a hard floor. If there is much of the manure it 
will pay to grind these chunks in a mill. Sift and 
add to each 700 lbs. of fine manure 300 lbs. of acid 
phosphate. For crops like potatoes, sugar beets or 
garden vegetables you can profitably add 50 lbs. of 
muriate of potash. This will make a good mixture 
for any crop, and it could be sold to good advantage. 
This plan, of course, means considerable work, but 
1229 
dous growth some of these sunflower plants will 
make when given good soil and a fair chance at the 
sun. They make a growth which is very surprising, 
and this ability to make a quick, heavy growth has 
made the sunflower a very useful crop for silage in 
some parts of the country. The sunflowers are cut 
into the silo very much the same as corn, and they 
give a good quality of silage, either alone or when 
mixed with corn. 
There is something of a discussion among farmers 
and scientific men as to the true value of the sun¬ 
flower as cattle food. We have varying reports 
about it. It seems to be most popular for use in the 
silo, either in Canada or in the Far West. In these 
localities it often happens that corn does not ripen 
properly, but the sunflowers make a quicker growth 
and usually mature a great crop. The sunflower is 
a good dry soil crop, and seems to require less water 
for its development. The Montana Experiment 
Station, located at Bozeman, has issued one or two 
bulletins on sunflower silage. They have found 
their best results were obtained when the sunflowers 
were first wilted for a day or so before being put 
into the silo. That seems,io make a better quality 
of silage than when the sunflowers are cut in dry or 
green. Almost every poultryman understands the 
value of sunflowers as a partial food for chickens, 
and as we go about the country we 
judge that more and more sunflowers 
are being planted, although in a damp 
section it is very difficult to save seeds. 
I 
Bees Injuring Grapes 
O N page 117G I notice an inquiry concerning bees 
injuring grapes. Some years ago I tested this 
question pretty thoroughly by placing a hive of bees 
close to a grapevine which was well loaded with 
fruit, nearly ripe. The bees were then fenced in by 
placing mosquito netting around the vine, about 10 
ft. square and S ft. high, and covered with the same 
material. The bees were left in this inclosure three 
weeks. In the meantime the grapes became thor¬ 
oughly ripe, and the bees had nothing else to do but 
destroy those grapes. At the close of the experiment 
not a grape had been touched. Of course, where 
wasps or English sparrows cut the skins, thus 
allowing the juice to escape, bees will work on them 
and gather up the juice and make it into honey, thus 
saving what would otherwise be wasted. Wasps are 
usually the guilty culprits—not the bees. 
Purdue University, Indiana. J. troop. 
The Long Island Seelc-no-further. Fig. 51!) 
it will pay if you want to get most out of the hen 
manure. Some poultrymen simply scatter the manure 
on level ground as it comes from the house, plow it 
under in Spring and broadcast 400 lbs. of acid phos¬ 
phate per acre after plowing. Land plaster and acid 
phosphate are the chemicals for hen manure. 
Handling Hen Manure For Best Results 
W<> have made provision, as well as a resolve, to 
handle the manure from the poultry department in bet¬ 
ter shape than in previous years. Formerly the manure 
was piled up in the open, with nothing added to it. 
This year we have a manure shed, where it can be 
stored in the dry. What should be added to it to make 
it a more complete fertilizer, and in what proportion? 
In phosphate, should we add the acid or raw rock? In 
using the plain manure in the past we found that we 
got a good growth, but the grain did not fill or mature. 
What will correct this? P- M - 
Berrien Springs, Mich. 
W E have answered this question many times, 
but it “keeps coining.” The manure is quite 
strong in ammonia. That drives crops into a quick, 
rank growth, but seed or fruit will not mature well 
unless there is a full supply of phosphorus and 
Seek-No-Further Apple 
S OME time ago reference was made to tlie Seek- 
no-further apple. There appear to be two 
recognized varieties bearing this name. The better 
known one is the Westfield Seek-no-further, an early 
Winter apple, red and yellow striped, of moderate 
size and mild flavor. 
The other variety, a fair specimen of which is 
shown on this page, is the Long Island Seek-uo- 
further. This was grown by Mr. A. II. Abeel of 
Suffolk Countv, Long Island. Mr. Abeel says this 
is about the average size of tree run. Some are 
much larger—up to a pound in weight. This Long 
Island Seek is a large, red striped apple, firm in tex¬ 
ture and rather tart—an excellent cooker. It is 
sometimes known as Ferris. Mr. Abeel says that he 
got this tree about 20 years ago from a Western 
New York nursery. It is an abundant bearer. 
A Big Sunflower 
T HE picture at Fig. 518 is sent us by E. A. Bur¬ 
dick, Essex County, Mass. lie says that the 
sunflower plant shown in the picture came up as a 
volunteer crop in the onion bed. We can see the 
size that this plant made from the appearance of 
Mr. Burdick with his little daughter, seven years 
old. perched on his shoulder. This plant is 10 ft. 
7 in. high. It had five flowers, but one of them was 
broken off. One large flower measured 13% in. in 
diameter. It certainly is remarkable what treinen- 
Amateur’s List of Questions 
1. Can you tell me if cooked cold to¬ 
matoes could kill a chicken about four 
months old? A Plymouth Rock was per¬ 
fectly well, or seemingly so. and when it 
ate the tomatoes it immediately fell over 
and died within a half hour. 2. Is it true 
thiat goldenrod gives people hay fever? 
3. We have some R. 1. Reds; they have 
pimples around the nose and eyes. We 
did not know what it was, but for safety 
isolated them. One of the neighbors says 
it is chicken pox. We have lost three al¬ 
ready. What is it? What can be done 
for them? 4. What is loam? 
MRS, L. s. 
HAVE never known tomatoes, either 
raw or cooked, to injure fowls, and 
they are frequently fed to them. 
2. Yes. goldenrod may cause hay 
fever in people susceptible to tlie poi¬ 
sonous action of its pollen; so, in fact, 
may almost any other one of the wild 
and cultivated plants. Roses may 
cause “June colds.” and ragweed is 
responsible for untold misery when it 
disseminates its pollen in the Fall. A 
similar type of poisoning is also caused 
in susceptible people by the dandruff 
from tlie skin of lower animals. Many 
cannot care for horses, and some cannot even ride 
them, without suffering an attack of asthma. The 
feathers of hens or geese produce respiratory dis¬ 
orders in some susceptible people, and the banish¬ 
ment of feather pillows from tlieir beds and feather 
cushions from their living rooms lias brought quick 
relief to many asthmatics who finally discovered in 
them the exciting cause of their suffering. A still 
more curious instance of this sort of poisoning was 
reported to this paper by a dairyman not long ago. 
only, in this instance, the poisoning affected the skin. 
This dairyman found that he could not milk more 
than one cow without afterwards suffering from an 
itching and intensely disagreeable eruption of the 
skin. Whether the dandruff from the skin of some 
particular cow which he reached in the order of his 
milking, or whether the prolonged exposure caused 
by milking several cows, made it impossible for him 
to milk his dairy in comfort. I do not know. An¬ 
other manifestation of the same type of poisoning is 
frequently found in people who suffer from some par¬ 
ticular article of diet. Eggs, oysters, strawberries, 
and even milk, may “disagree” with some individuals. 
This was long ago recognized as a fact, without 
knowledge of the reason, and expressed by the adage 
“What is one man's meat is another’s poison.” These 
forms of poisoning are caused by chemical com¬ 
pounds known as proteins. These proteins are essen¬ 
tial parts of vegetable and animal bodies, and are 
foods, rather than poisons, to the great majority of 
people. It is only those who themselves possess an 
unfortunate susceptibility to some of them who suf¬ 
fer when brought into contact with them. This sus¬ 
ceptibility may always exist in the individual, or be 
acquired late in life, as the writer has found to his 
sorrow. This Fall, at the age of 50, he suffered his 
first attack of hay fever, probably from exposure to 
the pollen of a large amount of ragweed which cov¬ 
ers a railroad right of way in the rear of his prem- 
