176 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
February 2, 1924 
All Sorts 
Winter in the Jackson Hole Region 
Who of our Eastern readers has ever 
heard of the Jackson Hole country in 
Wyoming, that 50-mile long valley, lying 
secluded among the TetonsV This region 
is the last of the old West, and during the 
Summer season is frequented by tourists, 
or “dudes,” as they have been nicknamed 
by the settlers. 
Jackson’s Hole was in the early days 
the rendezvous of desperadoes. Horse and 
cattle thieves concealed their plunder 
here^and snapped their lingers at justice. 
It was a difficult place upon which to 
make a raid, the valley being hemmed in 
by mountains, and with the one or two 
gaps heavily guarded the criminals were 
safe enough. There came a time when 
the cattlemen of Montana, Idaho and 
Wyoming tired of losing their cattle to 
rustlers, and forming a band they boldly 
attacked the valley and cleaned up thor¬ 
oughly on the outlaws. With the exodus 
of the criminal horde came a few pioneer 
settlers, whose descendants make a scan¬ 
ty livelihood at ranching, the Summer 
season being too short to produce a large 
and varied crop. Corn and wheat does 
not grow here, but oats and one crop of 
Alfalfa is raised; also good dry-land po¬ 
tatoes. Small garden truck is fairly suc¬ 
cessful, if the killing frost that comes in 
July does not demolish it. 
An old-timer has said: “Jackson’s Hole 
has but three seasons; July, August and 
Winter.” This Winter is especially very 
difficult in all ways; the temperature per¬ 
sists in remaining far below zero, indus¬ 
tries slack, and finances at a low ebb all 
over the West. We are holding our 
breath until Spring when the tension 
will have loosened somewhat, and we will 
be in a fair way to mend our fortunes. 
The homes here are mostly of boards 
or logs, and roughly hewn. Those inhab¬ 
itants who have been born and bred here 
have little eye for beauty, and in Sum¬ 
mer no effort is made to encourage vines, 
shrubs or flowers. Thus the little nonde¬ 
script cabins squat grotesquely by the 
wayside, in the midst of scrubby sage¬ 
brush, with no redeeming features to 
break the ugly lines. Lack of space is 
another obstacle to real hominess in these 
cabins. A woman who has lived in her 
one-room log house for 20 years has 
raised a family of eight children there. 
When a house does contain several rooms 
and boasts a living-room and dining 
room, the dwellers therein are considered 
well up the ladder, financially and so¬ 
cially. 
Our log house is as snug as we can 
make it. With my New England love of 
roominess it was something of a problem 
to convert our cnbin into u real homey 
home, and one requiring no end of opti¬ 
mism. With cleanliness as -a basis, and 
the introduction of books, pictures, cush¬ 
ions and crisp curtains, I have managed 
to achieve an atmosphere lacking in other 
homes. Our water supply comes from a 
small river (we call them cricks ) and 
is carried by hand into the house. 
Through these Winter months we chop 
holes in the thick ice through which to 
lower the water pail. Sometimes we lean 
fanvard too far from the bank, lose out¬ 
balance and fall in. Luckily the creek is 
shallow, but to fall into ice-water on a 
frosty morning with the temperature at 
50 degrees below isn’t guaranteed to im¬ 
prove the disposition. I have saved many 
a trip to the creek, though, by tilling my 
reservoir with the huge icicles that form 
on our eaves. 
We are 20 miles from a railroad, and 
ni order to get outside the valley one must 
ride “over the hill,” or, in other words, 
cross up over the Teton pass and down 
into Idaho on the other side. The route 
winds round the mountain sides, ever 
climbing upward, until an elevation o 
S.404 ft. is reached. The sheer grandeur 
of this route is beyond description. On 
one side high mountains lose their sum¬ 
mits in the clouds, while on the other 
side the road falls away into steep can¬ 
yons. 
Excellent cattle are raised here, but 
cattle raising is an expensive industry, 
inasmuch as they have to be fed six 
months out of the year, owing to the one 
crop of Alfalfa before mentioned. 1 he 
most paying industry is “dude ranching, 
and the people engaged in this realize a 
goodly profit each year. The “dudes are 
housed in comfortable log cabins, and paj 
from $18 a day upwards for the privilege 
of roughing it in the Mild M est, and foi 
waiting on themselves. Guides and sad¬ 
dle horses are provided, and in Summer 
the hills are filled with “dudes,” who are 
intent upon bear hunting. 
The scenery of Jackson’s Hole is mag¬ 
nificent. Up to the era of prohibition 
this was the sort of Wild West described 
in the cinema. Saloons and gambling 
holes flourished, and cow punchers with 
spurs, chaps, Stetson hats and six-guns 
would gallop into town, making the air 
blue with profanity and gunpowder, io- 
day the cow puncher still wears his Stet¬ 
son, and packs a gun on either hip, but 
he does nothing more heinous than to sit 
on a dry goods box in Bob Jmndy s gen¬ 
eral store and talk about the weather. 
Yet there are towns not so far away 
where law is a myth and where men die 
with their boots on. 
“The Virginian” was written up on 
the old Wister place, here in the Hole. 
and the Ilorsethief Trail, described in 
that book, cut through a portion of this 
valley on its way from Canada to Mexico. 
Wyoming. carola AUBTJKN martin. 
Treating Scab on Potatoes 
I limed most of my land last year, 
about 800 lbs. hydrated lime to the acre, 
and had corn on it. I would like to plant 
some potatoes on this, as it is my best 
land. Is there any way I can treat the 
seed to prevent scab on the limed ground? 
Also, is the lime injurious to any other 
start sulphuric acid, and will produce a 
sour condition in the soil, so that the 
germs of potato scab will not develop. In 
addition to this we should soak the potato 
seed in either the formalin or corrosive 
sublimate solution. The first is made by 
dissolving one pint of formalin in 30 gal- 
Power-driven Potato Digger 
I am anticipating using an engine on 
a three-horse potato digger, just to run 
the elevated parts and the shakers, the 
rest to be drawn by horses. Will this 
work? What horsepower engine must I 
have? Must 1 have a chain or belt 
drive? What size pulley must I have on 
the engine, also on the digger, to make it 
run the right speed? w. C. S. 
New Freedom, Pa. 
It is possible to mount an engine as 
you suggest, and it relieves the team of a 
great deal of heavy work, as well as re¬ 
moving the necessity of traction grouters 
on the wheels. A four-horsepower light¬ 
weight engine is recommended for this 
purpose. A combination of chain and 
gear drive is ordinarily used to get suffi¬ 
cient speed reduction, which should be 
sufficient to give the elevator the normal 
speed of the horse-drawn implement, 
probably a reduction of 10 or 12 to 1; 
that is, the elevator drive making one 
revolution to 10 or 12 of the engine, and 
the gears and sprockets having teeth in 
about that ratio. 
The mounting parts can be obtained 
directly from the manufacturer if desired, 
or a careful study of their catalogue, 
showing their engine-equipped machines, 
may help in building the engine mount¬ 
ing and drive from 
farm machines. 
A Home in the Jackson Hole Country, Wyoming 
particularly sugar and 
mangel 
G. N. 
parts of discarded 
crops, 
beets? 
Yaphank, N. Y. 
In such a case we should fit the land 
well and broadcast about 300 lbs. of inoc¬ 
ulated sulphur per acre, well harrowed in. 
This sulphur contains the germs which 
Ions of water and soaking the uncut seed 
in it 90 minutes. The second treatment 
is given by dissolving 2 oz. of corrosive 
sublimate in tw T o gallons of hot water and 
then diluting to 15 gallons or a larger 
quantity, in like proportion. 
'cured' 
fftADe 
Great bins of Royster Fertilizer ‘‘cure,’' 
“age,” for months so that your re- 
or 
P ERHAPS you didn’t know that ferti¬ 
lizer should be “cured” or “aged” in 
order that the food for soil can be more 
readily available when that food is needed. 
This is one of the details of the ferti¬ 
lizer industry that few people know, but 
it’s mighty important. Such “details” 
as this represent the difference between 
Royster’s Fertilizer and less carefully pre¬ 
pared foods—and the difference between 
profitable crops and crops that are not so 
profitable. 
To keep vast quantities of fertilizer for 
months represents an enormous supply and 
a tremendous capital. Therefore, only a 
large company like Royster’s can offer this 
more effective “cured” fertilizer. 
suits from its use w illswell the earnings 
from your land. 
Rid yourself of the idea that all ferti¬ 
lizer is alike. This is no more true than that 
all land is alike. 
The truth of this can be proven—not 
alone by the enthusiastic praise of success¬ 
ful farmers who have used Royster’s, but 
by your own experience. 
Use Royster’s this year. Give it a fair 
test—-and don’t guess about fertilizer any 
more. 
Grow better and larger crops by using 
fertilizer that has been “cured”—that is 
free from lumps—that has been proven 
chemically correct by forty chemists—and 
that has established a record for good 
works over a long period of years. Look 
for the name ‘ROYSTER” on the bags. 
F. S. ROYSTER GUANO CO. 
BALTIMORE. MD. 
ROY 
T7e!d Tested Tertih'zers 
