The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
January 12, 1924 
i 52 k _ 
Things To Think About 
Horticultural Notes 
Adjusted Compensation 
The word bonus, as applied to an ad¬ 
justment of the compensation of the vet¬ 
erans of the World War, is, in my opin¬ 
ion, an insult to every man who wore the 
uniform of the United States during that 
war. The enemies of this measure per¬ 
sist in calling it a bonus, a gratuity. The 
attitude of the former soldier is not that 
of the beggar, with hands outstretched 
meekly supplicating alms, but that of a 
self-respecting man who demands just 
payment for services faithfully performed. 
President Coolidge, referring to the sol¬ 
diers, states in his message with which he 
transmitted the budget, that “the tit and 
able-bodied are offered the opportunity 
open to every other citizen.” This is true 
now, and I suppose we should be thankful 
to a grateful nation for not discriminat¬ 
ing against us now. However, during 
our period of service we were denied that 
opportunity. We were denied the op¬ 
portunity to sell our labor in the open 
markets of the country, at a time when 
common labor demanded and received 
higher wages than at any previous period 
in its history. We could not say to the 
boss. “We are getting through; we can 
get $10 a day, making munitions.” Oh, 
no! We worked for our boss as long as 
he had work for us to do; work of a more 
arduous and dangerous nature than that 
of the $10-day jobs, and got—how much ? 
Most of us got about $1 a day. 
Now, when we ask that this injustice 
be righted, are we asking for a bonus, a 
gift? Where is the sense of justice of the 
American people? I. in common with 
most other veterans, feel bitterly towards 
those who have so little appreciation of 
our services that they oppose this prop¬ 
osition which attempts to give us some 
measure of justice. 
Twice recently, over the radio, we have 
heard anti-compensation speeches, and in 
both the speakers were either misinformed 
or they deliberately distorted the facts. 
One claimed that this compensation meas¬ 
ure was but the beginning of a series of 
demands which the veterans would make 
on the Treasury. He was either ignorant 
of or purposely concealed the fact that 
the American Legion is on record as be¬ 
ing anti-pension, and that adjusted com¬ 
pensation is intended to square up all 
financial claims which the able-bodied 
veteran has against the government. 
We claim that whether we need it or 
not, that whether we are able-bodied or 
not, that whether our army service was 
difficult and dangerous, or easy and safe, 
we are all entitled to this slight addition¬ 
al compensation. carl c. Johnson. 
Pomfret, Vt. 
R. N.-Y.—Mr. Johnson informs us that 
he was 38 years old when war was de¬ 
clared and might easily have obtained ex¬ 
emption, but he volunteered for service. 
Penalty for Destroying Mail-Boxes 
and Signs 
What is the penalty for tearing down 
mail boxes ' and large signs which are 
placed on private p^perty, but near pub¬ 
lic road? Say a large one 10 ft. long by 
4 ft. wide, with name of farm, owners’ 
names and any special product for sale 
by such farm and proprietors. There 
seems to be a class of young hoodlums 
who take delight in carrying away from 
owners’ premises both signs and mail 
boxes. F. M. p. 
New York. 
The Federal law provides that who¬ 
ever shall willfully or maliciously in¬ 
jure, tear down, or destroy any mail¬ 
box or receptacle intended or used for 
the receipt of mail on any mail route 
shall be punished by a fine of not more 
than $1,000 or imprisonment for not 
more than three years. One who will¬ 
fully tears down or injures personal 
property of another is subject to arrest 
on a charge of malicious injury to per¬ 
sonal property. 
You do not state the age of the “young 
hoodlums.” If they are under the age 
of 16 the proper place of punishment is 
in the children’s court. N T. 
Conveyance of Pupils 
I live in a backward school district 
where it has been hard to get good teach¬ 
ers and also the burden of taxation has 
been very heavy, so in May, 1922. we 
voted to contract with the village school, 
which was done very satisfactory with 
good results. We hired transportation 
for the pupils. A son of the man at the 
further end of the district took them ; he 
was a boy 16 years^ of age, trusty and 
reliable and everything went-fine. This) 
year we renewed our contract with vil¬ 
lage school, and also gave the transporta¬ 
tion to same man, with the under-stand¬ 
ing that the son, who is now past 17, 
was to drive the rig. One man in the 
district has become dissatisfied and 
makes demands that we hire a man, and 
also says the law requires it. Can he 
make us put a man on the rig as driver? 
This man also lives a short distance off 
of the main road, and has an adopted 
child. He says we will have to open 
our school-house for her to wait in. The 
rig passes by the road the child lives on. 
This child could go to a neighbor’s house, 
but this her father will not allow. Some 
years ago this district contracted and a 
much smaller and younger boy drove all 
the 10 or 12 years they contracted. This 
man says the district superintendent says 
we will have to have a man, but our 
district superintendent also told us five 
or six years ago we would have to put 
in the chemical toilets. Our district 
did it at great expense, and adjoining 
districts did not, so it is hard to tell. 
Will law make us put a man on rig, and 
also open and heat schoolhouse? All 
other children live on direct route; would 
we have to provide a way 'for child over 
16 to get to school? F. P. H. 
New York. 
Assuming that the young man you 
speak of uses a horse or horses, and does 
not drive an automobile, if he is capable 
of driving and reliable, the man taking 
the contract to take the children to school 
may permit him to drive the conveyance. 
You would have to provide for a child 
over 16 if he desired to go. Having voted 
to close the school we do not believe it 
will be necessary for you to keep a fire. 
N. T. 
Cash or Share Rental 
In regard to cash rent for farms, as 
mentioned on page 1450, would suggest 
that for Central Orleans County your 
rate is high. I have had seven years’ ex¬ 
perience on cash rented land, and know 
Kohl-rabi for Wintf.r Use. —Kohl¬ 
rabi stored in boxes of sand in the cellar 
has kept just as well as turnips or any 
other root crops. The fact that kohl¬ 
rabi is available for Winter use does 
not seem to be realized by most garden 
makers in this country, although it is a 
common practice in England to store this 
vegetable. As a matter of fact, com¬ 
paratively few amateurs seem to know 
kohl-rabi at all. Yet it is a first-rate 
vegetable. The fact that the edible part 
that a large percentage of rented farms 
here do not pay interest and taxes to the 
owners. In cash renting, would # take 
the gross sales and consider one-third a 
suitable share for the land, a third for 
the tenant, and the remainder will go for 
feed bills, fertilizer, thrashing, extra la¬ 
bor, if any can be hired, seed, etc. The 
income for the past few years is usually 
a fair guide to the next, as it is largely 
a gamble, anyway, and a good year for 
the tenant is apt to mean a rent increase. 
For this, or some better reasons, most 
farms here are share rented, and that fact 
in itself is somewhat of an argument for 
the latter system. Fernando fancher. 
Orleans Co., N. Y. 
“Is your son-in-law industrious?” asked 
an acquaintance. “Well, sorter,” repBed 
old man Sockery of Clapboard Springs. 
“He’ll do ’most anything but work.” — 
Kansas City Star. 
Concerning the Origin of the Concord 
Grape 
Referring to an article, “The Story of 
the Concord Grape,” by H. B. T., I wish 
to correct some errors. It is in the main 
true, but leaves some wrong impressions 
to the reader, which I do not think, how¬ 
ever, that II. B. T. intended. He prob¬ 
ably was misinformed. 
The daughter of Ephraim Bull lives in 
this city. I called upon her and showed 
her the article. Here are some correc¬ 
tions and some facts. The Concord grape 
was a seedling fox grape chosen with 
care. The grape that became the Con¬ 
cord grape was the third generation of 
that fox grape, which meant approxi¬ 
mately 15 years of scientific cultivation. 
There were no Catawbas in the garden 
at that time nor was it hybridized. It is 
a true grape. 
During the pest which threatened the 
destruction of the vineyards of France, 
the Emperor Napoleon sent an agent to 
this country to investigate conditions 
here. Mr. Bull and Mr. Longworth were 
then the largest growers of grapes in this 
country, Mr. Longworth specializing in 
Catawbas. Upon his return, Mr. Bull 
presented some cuttings of the Concord to 
the agent to be delivered to the Emperor. 
Medford, Mass. w. h. c. 
We quote from a letter dated Concord, 
Mass., January, 1854, written by E. W. 
is produced on top of the ground has a 
distinct advantage, because it is kept 
free from the ravages of the wireworms 
and slugs. Some amateurs have con¬ 
demned kohl-rabi as being tasteless and 
stringy, but investigation shows that in 
most instances they have allowed the 
bulbs to become too large. Kohl-rabi is 
one of the vegetables to be placed on the 
list of garden crops for next Summer. 
E. I. FARRINGTON. 
Bull to C. M. Ilovey, editor of the Mag¬ 
azine of Horticulture: “The Concord 
grape is a seedling, in the second genera¬ 
tion, of our native grape . . . being 
at that time the only seedling I had 
raised which showed a decided improve¬ 
ment on the wild type. . . . The 
seedling from which the Concord was 
raised grew near to a Cataicba, and it is 
quite possible was impregnated bg it. it 
having the flavor of that variety.” The 
italics are our own, but the words are 
those of the originator himself, recorded 
on page 66 of the February, 1854, issue 
of the Magazine of Horticulture. 
Any New Englander familiar with the 
fox grape should know that there are two 
type of vines, male and female; the for¬ 
mer producing pollen and no fruit, and 
the latter producing fruit but no pollen. 
In other words, the female vines, since 
they produce no pollen themselves, must 
be pollinated by pollen from other vines. 
Cross-pollination is accomplished oy 
natural agencies fully as efficiently as by 
man. If, as W. H. C. says, the Concord 
grape is the third generation of seedling 
fox grape (in spite of the fact that the 
originator himself only credits it with 
two generations), then so much the better 
the chances of it being hybridized. 
But we will go a step further and say 
it is our belief that the Concord was 
originated from other than pure fox grape 
parentage. Whether one of the parents 
was the Catawba or what not, we will 
not venture a guess, but we do know 
that some of the characters exhibited by 
the Concord indicate other than pure fox 
grape ancestry. For example, there are 
no perfect flowers among wild fox grapes. 
Then where did the Concord get its up¬ 
right stamens? The berries of the fox 
grape are usually oblate, never oval. 
Then where did the Concord gets ffs 
round berries, and where do seedlings 
from self-pollinated Concord vines occa¬ 
sionally derive their oval berries? 
II. B. TUKEY. 
Transplanting Old Grapevines 
Can I transplant old grapevines? I 
have some here on a large arbor that I 
want to move and cut back, so I can run 
them to a single stake, as I understand 
this is the best way to have them. 
Milford, N. J. k. a. s. 
Under favorable conditions grapevines 
may be successfully transplanted when 
several years old, five to seven years. 
However, it is not advisable usually to 
transplant vines over three years of age. 
If one wishes vines similar to those now 
growing it is best to layer some one- 
year growth of the parent vine, or else 
take cuttings from it and grow one-year 
plants from them. With a well-estab¬ 
lished vine layering is the easiest and 
surest way to obtain new plants. The 
old vine is severely pruned back at this 
season of the year, care being taken that 
a few well-ripened long canes be left in 
such position that they can be carried out 
to the sides of the parent vine. A trench 
is dug to a depth of from six to eight 
inches and into this the cane is bent to 
the bottom. Here it may be held by 
crossed pegs. The cane then is carried 
upright and cut off just above a bud that 
reaches above the surface of the soil when 
the trench is filled. Several layers from 
the same vine may be made at the same 
time, depending on the number of good 
canes available. Parts of the cane that 
are underground will develop roots at the 
nodes, and if these have been buried not 
too deep many shoots will grow through 
the surface of the soil, so that more than 
one plant may be obtained from the same 
plant. The best plant to be obtained is 
the one where the cane comes to the sur¬ 
face, as a good root and trunk result. 
In the Fall or the following Spring the 
layered cane is dug out and cut into sev¬ 
eral divisions, according to the develop¬ 
ment of the roots. 
Layering of the grape may also be 
done in the middle of the growing season, 
or -when the shoots have begun to lignify. 
It is done in exactly the same way as 
for the one-year wood just described. 
F. E. GLADWIN. 
Pump for Sprinkling 
What kind of a pump is used to pump 
in the irrigation pipes shown on page 
1360? I purchased three lines, 125 ft. 
long, two years ago, and have not used 
them yet, as I was told I would need a 
bulldozer pump and a big engine, 20-h.p., 
to operate it. My well is 100 ft. from 
where I want to sprinkle. I would try 
to operate one line at a time. w. G. K . 
Kenosha, Wis. 
My gas engine is a one-horsepower, 
pump run with gear instead of belt. A 
two-horse engine will be large enough for 
W. G. K. to run one line at a time. If 
he pumps from a pond or well not over 
25 ft. deep, a pump with valve at top 
will answer. My well is 58 ft. deep, and 
I have to have a valve at bottom of the 
l^-in. pipe. wm. perkins. 
A Fern Gatherer Unloading at the Packing Shed 
