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7bt RURAL NEW-YORKER 
August 23. 1024 
Timothy and Red-top grass, and both Alsike and 
Red clover mixed. The Red-top does not add to the 
market value of hay, but the grass has a higher 
feeding value than Timothy. It is a slender grass, 
and will work in and thicken the stand. Then, like 
Alsike clover, it will make a good growth on soil 
which is too sour for Timothy or Red clover. No 
field is ever quite uniform in its need of lime. There 
will be spots of acid soil even when the entire field 
has been limed, so Red-top and Alsike will help fill 
out the stand and make it more uniform. 
SEEDING A CORNFIELD.—Most of these farm¬ 
ers who swing over into market hay will have corn¬ 
fields to seed down. It will pay to seed them right 
and fill the soil with lime if possible. There is 
very little in the theory that fertilizers will bring 
weedy old meadows back into solid grass. It rarely 
pays to buy fertilizer for such an old meadow more 
than one year. Better plow it up. Kill out the 
sod and reseed. In fertilizing such a meadow 
soluble plant food should be used. When you fer¬ 
tilize corn or potatoes you can often put rather 
crude forms of plant food into the soil where they 
will break up and decay. In fertilizing grass the 
chemicals are left on top of the soil and must, dis¬ 
solve and soak down to the grass roots. This means 
available forms of nitrogen like nitrate of soda or 
sulphate of ammonia, very fine ground bone or acid- 
1 liosphate and potash salts. A fertilizer might give 
a good crop of corn, yet be nearly useless to push a 
crop of grass. Mr. George M. Clark, the Connec¬ 
ticut grass man, used an equal mixture of nitrate 
of soda, fine bone and muriate of potash with great 
results. A simple mixture of one part nitrate of 
soda, two parts acid phosphate and one part potash 
would be good and there should be at least 400 lbs. 
to the acre. 
Michigan Farmers Seeing New York 
IKED and dusty, nearly S00 Michigan farmers, 
their wives and children, are journeying 
through New York .state, facing toward New York 
City and Boston, on the sixth annual tour of Michi¬ 
gan Farmers and Grangers. This get-together trip 
will bring many Michigan people back to the homes 
of their parents and grandparents who left New’ 
York State and the New England States to take up 
new’ homes further west. The period of immigra¬ 
tion from New York to Michigan was at its height 
between the Mexican and Civil wars. It began as 
early as the 30's. Many of these people are descend¬ 
ed from farmers who with their waves and children 
jtacked a few household goods in their wagons, drove 
lo Buffalo and embarked for Toledo. Others fol¬ 
lowed the famous highway along the shores of Lake 
Erie. The old Lake Shore and Michigan Southern 
Railway transported many families from Buffalo 
to Adrian, Mach., and as if was extended onward to 
Hillsdale and through to Chicago. Many of these 
are sons and daughters of the thrifty farmers who 
came from Germany during the high period of im¬ 
migration, and who have contributed in full meas¬ 
ure to the reclaiming of the swamps, the cutting of 
the timber and the carving out of farms, and per¬ 
haps still others are grandsons and great-grandsons 
of the hardy French traders who started the first 
settlements, in still earlier years. These fine people 
are receiving a royal welcome as they proceed east¬ 
ward. Fair grounds are flung open for their camps, 
Grangers and farmers along the way are anxious 
to share their fruits and vegetables with their 
friends from another State, for the results of such a 
trip not only will be to weld farmers together, but 
to make lasting friendships. This is the sixth of 
the Michigan tours, and is under the direction of J. 
II. Brown, prominent in Michigan Grange and farm 
affairs. w. j. 
Condemnation of New York Farm Land 
W E have many letters from farmers whose 
farms are needed for public improvement. 
In one typical case a dam to store water is needed 
by a State hospital, and this naturally means that 
land now in farms must be secured. One of our 
readers has such a farm. He puts a price on it 
which the commission thinks is too high. They 
propose to have the property valued “in the usual 
way,” and if this price is not accepted they will 
acquire it under the condemnation law. This farmer 
wants to know what that is. He says: “I thought 
when a person owns land and always pays taxes 
no one has anything to say about the ownership.” 
The following statement, gives the essential points 
of the New York “condemnation law”: 
Section 0 of Article I of th.e Constitution of the State 
of New York provides that no person shall be deprived 
of his property without due process of law, nor shall 
private property be taken for public use without just 
compensation. 
The court has held that the power to take private 
property for public use is inseparable from the sover¬ 
eign power of the State and the constitution merely 
regulates it by requiring that just compensation be made 
to the owner. The right to take may be delegated by 
the Sovereignty for a public use. 
Section 7 of Article I of the constitution further pro¬ 
vides, “When private property shall be taken for any 
public use, the compensation to be made thenefor, when 
such compensation is not made by 'the State, shall be 
This shows Mrs. E. G. Carlson of Woburn, Mass., with 
some of her St. Bernard puppies. This is a noted breed. 
ascertained by a jury, or by the Supreme Court, with or 
without a jury, but not with a referee, or by not It^s 
than three commissioners appointed by a court of rec¬ 
ord. as shall be prescribed by law. Private roads may be 
opened in the manner to be prescribed by law. but in 
every cause the necessity of the road and the amount 
ot all damages to be sustained by the opening thereof 
shall be first determined by a jury of freeholders, and 
such amount, together with the expenses of the proceed¬ 
ing. shall be paid by the person to be benefited. Gen¬ 
eral laws may be passed permitting the owners or occu¬ 
pants of agricultural lands to construct and maintain 
This picture of a young apple tree (Yellow Trans¬ 
parent) was taken on Decoration Day by J. D. Winter 
of South Kortright, N. Y. This is an unusual produc¬ 
tion of bloom. 
for the drainage thereof, necessary drains, ditches and 
dykes upon the lands of others, under proper restric¬ 
tions and with just, compensation, but no special law’s 
shall be enacted for such purpose. The Legislature may 
authorize cities to take more land and property than is 
needed for actual construction in the laying out, widen¬ 
ing, extending or relocating parks, public places, high¬ 
ways or streets, provided, however, that the additional 
land and property so authorized to be taken shall be no 
more than sufficient to form suitable building sites abut¬ 
ting on such park, public place, highway or street. After 
so much of the land and property has been appropriated 
for such park, public place, highway or street as is 
needed therefor, the remainder may be sold or leased. 
It has been held that the constitutional provisions as 
to the manner of ascertaining* the compensation to be 
paid for private property when taken for public use 
may be waived by the owner. 
Section 64 of the Insanity Law provides as follows: 
“The State hospital commission may acquire, under the 
condemnation law, such real estate, right or interest 
therein as may be necessary for the construction, main¬ 
tenance and accommodation of a State hospital, if un¬ 
able to agree with the owner thereof for its purchase. 
The proceedings for the purpose of acquiring such real 
estate, rights or interests therein, shall he instituted and 
maintained in the name of the people of the State of 
Aew York, by the Attorney-General or by such counsel 
as the Governor or Attorney-General may designate for 
that purpose, upon the certificate of such commission ns 
to the necessity of acquiring such real estate, right or 
interest therein, approved and endorsed bv the Gov¬ 
ernor. The commission may acquire and hold in the 
name of and for the people of the State of New York, 
by grant, gift, devise or bequest, property to be applied 
to the maintenance of insane persons in and for the gen¬ 
eral use of a hospital.” 
The courts have held that in determining the amount 
of compensation to be paid the owner of property 
taken by eminent domain, the value to the owner of the 
property is to be ascertained, and not the benefits to be 
derived from the use of the property. 
lor the purpose of assessing damages from public 
improvements the land should be valued in view of 
every possible use to which it may be put. 
The measure of damages for the appropriation by 
the State of a portion of a farm, for public use, is the 
difference between the value of the farm before and 
after such appropriation. 
The constitution has recognized that there will be 
many times w’hen the State will find it necessary to take 
private property for public use; that is. that many peo¬ 
ple will be benefited by taking over property belonging 
to an individual, and the constitution has wisely pro¬ 
vided the manner of arriving at the damages, hence the 
individual cannot place an exorbitant price upon his 
property which, prior to the application, might have 
been worthless. Every owner of property which is 
taken for public use is justly dealt with, and while he 
may he unwilling to sell his property, it is one of the 
duties Which he owes the State and. if he refuses, con¬ 
demnation proceedings will compel the transfer. 
Delaware Grape 
I have a piece of 20 acres, and although sloping north 
it stands so high that the sun shines there early in the 
morning. I would like to try five acres in grapes, 
and have in mind the Delaware variety. I would like to 
know from some authority on grape culture how long 
would such variety take to come in full bearing, and 
how much would an average vine produce. Would the 
robins keep away from the grapes if one would keep 
shooting a few shots every day? ' n. d. 
Adams Basin, N. Y. 
IIE variety Delaware seems to be especially rel¬ 
ished by robins, and though we have tried many 
devices, even to firing many shots in the air, we 
have not been able to check their depredations to 
any appreciable extent. This variety, as most others, 
will bear under good care and suitable growing con¬ 
ditions a full crop in its fourth year. With the 
above conditions met, Delaware should average two 
tons per acre over several years. In some seasons 
the production will be considerably heavier than this, 
while in others it wil.1 be less than two tons. It is 
unsafe to figure on the production of the average 
vine, as their yields fluctuate widely, conditioned on 
the grade of vine planted, the soil environment, and 
the freedom from insects and diseases. f. e. g. 
Thompson’s Seedless Grape 
OME time ago someone inquired the possibility of 
growing this grape in New York State. I have 
lived 10 years there in the grape region, and seven 
years in California, where I have the Thompson 
Seedless growing, and have seen them in the south 
part of this State in Tulare County and Fresno, and 
am sure that the possibility of growing them any¬ 
where east is not good or safe. My residence is 
Santa Rosa, 50 miles north of San Francisco. They 
can be grown here, but not as a profitable kind; it 
is not hot enough in Summer, and they do not ripen 
well. The wood of the Thompson is too soft to 
ripen well here, it is often hurt by our frosts, that 
seldom produce ice in still water. 
The climate is very changeable here from one 
neighborhood to another. Any coast-line county is 
quite uniform the year around, but any interior 
county, over the range of mountains, is very hot in 
Summer, and cooler in Winter. You may find even 
climate all along the coast, even in Oregon and 
Washington, but from west to east in almost any 
place you go to a hotter climate. The residence 
part of the State mostly sought is in the coast coun¬ 
ties. There irrigation is not so much needed, as the 
fogs supply the moisture to grow most crops. This 
region is largely a resort place for those from in¬ 
side counties . The crops are mostly prunes, apples, 
pears, cherries and grapes, mostly in small farms, 
while grain and stock farms are in larger areas. 
Do not spend time growing Thompson’s Seedless 
gi apes east. a. h. geiesa. 
California. 
