The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
February 23, 1924 
304 
and 45,000 lbs. of lime; or the Collington loam of 
New Jersey, which contains 27,000 lbs. of phos¬ 
phorus, 18,200 lbs. of potash and 18,300 lbs. of lime. 
Such soils as the Chester mica loam of Maryland, or 
the Marion silt loam of Southern Illinois will pro¬ 
duce cotton lint, although they contain three times 
the amount of mineral plant food contained in our 
cotton belt soils, and of course the sandy lands of 
South Jersey would need fertilizers, just as Mr. Wil¬ 
liamson says about Georgia land. 
EARLY MATURITY—I have no doubt that it is 
quite possible to produce a variety of cotton that 
will mature lint on rich soils even in the shorter sea¬ 
sons of the North, for it is surprising what can be 
done with almost any plant by selecting of seed from 
early maturing plants, that nearly always appear in 
all crops. Such breeding work should be begun at 
once if America is to maintain her pre-eminence as a 
cotton producing country. As an example of how 
easy it is to produce varieties of plants that will 
extend their culture to wider fields of usefulness, I 
may cite beggarweed. 
IMPROVING THE BEGGARWEED.—For 35 
years the great value of beggarweed as a leguminous 
forage plant, for very poor, acid soils, 
has been known to the experts, but not 
until, by accident, the Cherokee clover 
variety was discovered was the cul¬ 
ture of beggarweed extended farther 
north than Middle Georgia. Last year 
the Cherokee clover variety was grown 
in every State in the Union and in 
every civilized country—yet being na¬ 
turally a poor land plant it did not 
make any seed on rich land, even in 
Southern Louisiana, where it grew 9 
ft. high and never even blossomed. 
VELVET BEANS.—For many years 
it has been held that the velvet bean 
would not mature seed north of Ten¬ 
nessee. although there were varieties 
that matured in 3% months on the 
skill and diligence in receiving a passenger, convey¬ 
ing him to his destination and setting him down 
safely as the means of the conveyance employed and 
the circumstances of the case will permit, and 
should any injury happen to the passenger, not 
contributed to by his own negligence, but due to 
negligence on the part of the carrier or to his ser¬ 
vants, damages may be recovered. 
The principles governing the liability of passenger 
carriers seem first to have been laid down in stage 
coach cases, and it was early settled that the owner 
of a stage coach is not an insurer of the safety of 
his passengers and is only liable in the case of 
negligence. 
Thus a carrier is required to exercise great care in 
reference to the vehicle used, the horses and har¬ 
ness. and the skill and sobriety of the driver, and 
is liable if. through the slightest negligence in these 
respects or in the conduct of the driver, a passenger 
is injured. 
The carrier is bound to provide reasonable rules 
and regulations governing the conduct of his pas¬ 
sengers and it is the duty of the carrier to use care 
and caution to see that those rules are obeyed. It 
poor lands of the South; for the velvet 
bean is also a poor-land, acid-soil 
plant that receives no benefit from fer¬ 
tilizer. But Prof. Morse has developed 
the Arlington bean, which makes a 
very small vine but a lot of beans, and 
will mature anywhere Dent corn is a 
sure crop. I believe no plant breeder 
has ever done a work of such great 
value to the corn belt farmer as this 
work of Prof. Morse in developing the 
Arlington bean. 
SPECIALIZED SOILS. — PleaSe do 
not misunderstand what I mean about 
the poor lands of the cotton belt, for 
I have found that there is no such 
thing as poor soils. Soils that are rich 
for some crop are poor for other crops. 
Soils that will produce even 40 bushels 
of corn will not produce any peanuts 
at all, but just a lot of vines, and on 
soils where beggarweed will grow 10 
ft. high, corn and oats will just fade 
away and die. And yet beggarweed 
will not grow on lands recently limed 
and ideal for Alfalfa, and peanuts may be killed by 
too much lime.- Kudzu will yield five or more tons 
per acre of the most nutritious hay where Alfalfa, 
Sweet or Red clover would perish. Yet beggarweed 
and kudzu will transform the poorest acid soils of 
the coastal plain, in a few years, so that Alfalfa or 
Sweet clover make a perfectly normal growth with¬ 
out adding a pound of lime, for kudzu and beggar¬ 
weed have such strong feeding powers and their 
long tap-roots penetrate the soils so deeply that 
they gather and digest all the minerals, including 
lime in large quantities, and in dying, or when 
plowed under they add this plant food to the topsoil 
for the benefit of the shallow-rooted plants, and for 
the little roots of young Alfalfa, Sweet clover or 
Red clover. chas. f. leach. 
A l.ittle Snoio for Variety. Fig. 93 
The Gentlemanly Ox, Third Member of the Family.. Fig. 94 
is the duty of the carrier to exercise great care and 
vigilance in preserving order and in guarding pas¬ 
sengers from annoyance, violence or insults from 
fellow passengers. A carrier is liable for an assault 
of a passenger by a fellow passenger where such 
assault could have been prevented by the exercise 
of proper care on the part of the carrier. It is the 
duty of the carrier to warn a passenger of dangers 
which might be anticipated. 
We believe that where one undertakes the carry¬ 
ing of children he should exercise a higher de¬ 
gree of care for their safety than in the carrying 
of adults. It will be impossible to state as a matter 
of law whether or not you were liable in the case 
named for the reason it would be a question of fact 
as to whether or not there was any negligence on 
the part of your servant. n. t. 
destroying home interests, home guardianship and 
family solidarity. The gang spirit will replace the 
ties of family life and destroy the ability which the 
country child now has to engage independently in 
worth-while amusements and interests.” 
It seems to me evident that, even in villages of 
moderate size, homes are losing their hold upon chil¬ 
dren. The tendency is to turn over the training of 
children to outside teachers, or to neglect training 
altogether. Boys’ clubs, Scout organizations, girls’ 
clubs, etc. are depended upon to give the training 
that should be. in greater measure, the work of par¬ 
ents. If girls learn to sew. they do it in the home 
economics department of the village high school; if 
boys learn how to build a fire or handle a plane they 
are taught by a Scout Master or the teacher of 
agriculture in the village academy. Fathers and 
mothers have little time and less disposition to 
make the home a school for child training through 
example and oversight, they prefer to turn the job 
over to some outside paid teacher. 
Men who are making it their business to super¬ 
vise young people’s activities outside of school work, 
superintendents of social centers, etc., tell me that 
conditions have undergone a complete 
revolution in the last 20 years; that 
I would be astonished to know what 
the young people of today are doing 
and thinking outside of their homes. 
1 am informed that my “hair would 
curl” if I were in a position to see 
what these men see going on among 
young people. I am told, too, that the 
modern girl is furnishing a problem 
much more disquieting than that for¬ 
merly supplied by the boy, that the dis¬ 
turbing factor has shifted from one 
sex to the other. 
I am told these things, not by the¬ 
orists and childless men, like myself, 
but by men of unquestioned standing 
who are actively engaged in watching 
over and directing the social activities 
of village young people. I hope that 
at least some of these things seem 
much worse than they really are. 
I asked the superintendent of a so¬ 
cial center, who was telling me about 
some of these things the other day, 
what was the matter with modern par¬ 
ents that they didn’t know what was 
going on. lie replied that the parents 
were at the movies, and that frequent¬ 
ly the children got home before they 
did. From some of the things that I 
have seen in the smaller villages I can 
believe him. 
In view of so much of this as is 
true, and 1 am afraid that a great 
deal of it is, there is reason in the tie- 
sire of country people outside of the 
villages to keep their children at home, 
even, at the expense of better teaching 
in village schools. If they can stress 
the home element in child training vs. 
the village school influence, they will 
have a real argument to present 
against changing the unit of administration of 
school affairs. 
Yet, it must be admitted that it is the ambition 
of most bright country boys and girls to get into 
the village high schools and that parents sacrifice 
a great deal in order to get them there, often even 
giving up the farm to “move to town and educate 
their children.” High school education is now free 
to all rural pupils in this State, the State paying 
their tuition if they live outside a district maintain¬ 
ing a high school. The new bill does not offer any¬ 
thing new in “providing for a high school education 
of all country boys and girls.” It may make such 
training more convenient for many by increasing 
the number of high schools, but it offers no innova¬ 
tion, as its advocates so frequently claim that it 
does. 
Liability of a School Wagon Driver 
I drive a school wagon carrying children to the con¬ 
solidated school. A boy was injured by jumping oil the 
bus while moving; a friend was driving (a licensed op¬ 
erator). Boy was on the running board where I had 
previously forbidden him to ride. In case of a Law¬ 
suit, who is responsible? I am under bond for 8475. 
the obligation being, to provide blankets and robes 
when necessary ; to provide a driver acceptable to the 
board; to take proper care of the wagon and sled: 
obey orders from the school board and not sell or sub¬ 
let the contract. A - D - M - 
HE general law covering the liability of the car¬ 
rier of passengers may be stated to be that the 
carrier is bound to exercise as high a degree of cate, 
New Argument in the School Discussion 
[The following note is from a man who lives in a 
small town. He says he has not heretofore been 
greatly impressed by most of the arguments against 
the new school bill, but now he is changing his mind. 
We meet many people who are coming to the same 
conclusion, and the feeling will grow as the bill is dis¬ 
cussed.] 
I THINK that I see now this idea developing, and 
it has something behind it: "We don't want the 
influence of the village over our children. That in¬ 
fluence is toward taking the child from the home, 
Killing Weeds With Chemicals 
Many people ask whether they can put some chemical 
on the soil to kill out the weeds so as to save cultiva¬ 
tion and hoeing. On asparagus a heavy coat of salt will 
keep down most of the grass and weeds without doing 
much injury to the asparagus, but that is about the 
only crop upon which this plan can be successfully car¬ 
ried out. Gardeners are particularly anxious to know 
how to kill out the seed of purslane which becomes a 
great pest in some sections. We do not know of any 
chemical that will do it without injuring the soil and 
in our own case have never found anything except thor¬ 
ough culture and killing the weeds as they appear above 
ground that will prove satisfactory. 
