<Iht  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
943 
A  Wheat  Crop  on  a  Brick  Yard 
[The  picture  at  Fig-.  3SS  shows  a  wheat  field  in 
what  was  formerly  an  old  brickyard  near  Coxsackie, 
N.  Y.  It  is  something  of  a  job  for  a  farmer  to  make 
such  a  crop  grow  on  brick  clay,  and  we  asked  Mr.  El'.as 
(fates,  who  did  the  work,  to  tell  us  how.it  was  done. 
His  notes  follow :] 
HE  ORIGINAL  SOIL. — I  would  say  tlie  land 
'was  not  brought  hack  but  went  from  one  stage 
to  another.  An  old  man  told  me  when  I  was  young 
they  covered  up  a  swamp  in  making  the  brickyard, 
but  we  drained  the  flat  land,  and  I  laid  the  tile, 
but  did  not  see  anything  that  looked  like  a  swamp. 
If  was  all  clay  of  the  toughest  kind  that  had  been 
far  below  the  surface  and  dumped  there.  Bricks  had 
been  made  on  it  for  20  years  that  I  know  of,  and 
a  long  time  before.  The  moisture  came  up.  and  they 
said  if  there  was  a  heavy  dew  they  could  not  moid 
bricks,  and  that  was  one  reason  the  man  went 
bankrupt.  I  think  it  was  in  1SS0  that  I  bought  it. 
two  years  after  brick-making  stopped.  While  they 
made  brick  there  as  near  nothing  grew  on  it  as 
could  be,  but  when  left  to  nature,  Sweet  clover 
of  the  rankest  kind  came  in,  and  a  cow  could  not  oe 
We  grafted  part  of  them  one  year  and  more  the 
next,  before  they  were  large.  They  grew  thrifty, 
but  could  not  stand  the  cold  spell  we  had  some  IS 
years  ago ;  it  was  30  degrees  below  zero  for  a  num¬ 
bers  of  nights,  and  it  killed  these  trees  and  damaged 
nearly  all  I  had.  They  were  all  right  below  the 
snow  but  were  an  eyesore  to  me.  and  I  took  them 
out  and  put  on  oats  again  but  failed. 
A  WHEAT  SEEDING.— Then  we  put  on  quite  a 
little  barnyard  manure  and  sowed  wheat,  and  that 
grew  rank  and  fell  down,  so  that  it  was  hard  to 
gather,  and  did  not  fill  well.  The  seeding  was 
partly  smothered  and  I  got  it  in  my  head  to  sow  it 
to  Alfalfa.  This  is  the  preparation  the  wheat  field 
got.  We  disked  the  land  from  Spring  until  seeding 
time  with  a  16-disk  harrow  with  three  well-fed 
horses.  I  had  the  Alfalfa  seed,  and  did  not  change 
my  mind  until  a  short  time  before  seeding.  I  was 
satisfied  that  Alfalfa  would  do  well  for  it  would 
not  get  wet  feet  or  be  short  of  moisture  if  it  would 
go  down  after  it.  The  experience  we  had  with  the 
car  was  traced  through  its  number.  The  two  men 
were  arrested.  The  elder  man  denied  all  knowledge 
of  the  affair,  but  the  son,  when  questioned  sep¬ 
arately  admitted  everything  and  made  a  full  con¬ 
fession.  The  case  came  to  trial  before  a  judge  and 
the  defense  entered  by  the  lawyers  was  that  these 
auto  hogs  undoubtedly  lost  their  head  and  became 
confused  after  striking  the  man.  It  was  claimed 
that  they  thought  the  man  had  been  drinking  and 
that  this  was  the  reason  he  fell  down.  The  case 
against  them  was  clear  and  the  judge  accepted  a 
plea  of  manslaughter.  The  older  man  was  sent  to 
the  House  of  Correction  for  two  years,  and  the  son 
received  a  sentence  of  six  months. 
It  seems  incredible  that  in  a  State  like  Massa¬ 
chusetts  two  auto  hogs  can  deliberately  kill  a  man 
on  the  road  and  escape  with  as  light  a  punishment 
as  this.  It  seems  that  the  man  who  was  killed  had 
no  near  relatives  or  friends.  He  was  not  considered 
a  man  of  much  importance  and,  therefore,  the  case 
against  him  was  not  pressed,  hut,  think  of  two 
The  Brickyard  After  It  I Yas  Changed  to  a  Wheat  Field.  Fig.  888 
seen  unless  you  were  on  high  ground.  I  pastured  it 
for  a  few  years  while  we  were  cleaning  it  up,  and 
that  was  a  big  job. 
BEGINING  CULTIVATION.— When  we  went  to 
plow  it  I  found  that  two  horses  could  not  draw  the 
plow,  so  put  on  three  and  such  plowing  I  never  had 
seen  before  or  since.  There  was  no  sod  to  speak 
of.  and  it  broke  up  in  large  chunks,  but  it  froze  out 
that  Winter  and  I  planted  corn,  which  was  a  failure. 
I  sowed  a  pound  of  Purple-top  turnip  seed  on  the 
flat,  and  when  Fall  came  they  grew  to  be  the  larg¬ 
est  that  people  ever  saw.  There  were  some  as  large 
across  as  a  peck  measure,  and  lots  six  and  eight 
inches;  few  less  than  three  inches.  There  had  been 
no  fertilizer  used  up  to  this  time. 
ANOTHER  CROP. — The  next  Spring  we  put  in 
oats  and  clover,  but  the  oats  were  a  failure,  and 
the  clover  grew  well.  We  mowed  it  once  and  plowed, 
and  it  was  in  quite  good  condition,  but  corn  did 
not  do  well,  though  it  would  on  other  parts  of  the 
farm.  I  could  work  the  ground  mellow,  but  when 
there  came  a  rain  it  ran  together,  and  corn  or  oats 
would  not  grow.  Up  to  this  time  there  had  been  no 
commercial  fertilizer  used,  and  very  little  barn¬ 
yard  manure. 
PEAR  TREES. — I  had  some  Beurre  Bose  pear 
trees  that  pleased  me  so  well  that  we  set  this  field 
to  Anjou  to  top-work.  The  trees  were  set  20  feet 
apart,  and  people  remarked  how  regular  they  were. 
crop  of  wheat  before  made  me  cautious  of  using 
much  fertilizer  on  this  crop.  We  used  a  4-S-10  and 
not  over  400  pounds.  The  wheat  was  put  in  good 
season,  but  did  not  make  much  growth;  it  had  a 
good  color,  and  when  Spring  came  it  made  a  great 
growth  and  did  not  fall  down,  but  was  filled  so  that 
it  did  not  stand  straight,  but  some  leaned  one  way 
and  some  another.  I  do  not  think  there  was  any 
of  the  original  earth’s  surface  in  this  field,  not  over 
a  rod  if  that.  I  think  cultivation  had  the  most  to 
do  to  liberate  what  was  in  the  soil  that  had  been 
far  beneath  the  surface.  This  crop  was  grown  in 
1917  when  there  was  a  great  call  for  wheat. 
New  York.  elias  gates. 
Light  Punishment  for  Auto  Hogs 
A  READER  in  Massachusetts  sends  us  an  ac¬ 
count  of  a  remarkable  performance  by  a 
couple  of  auto  hogs  in  that  State.  It  appears  that 
a  man  and  his  son  were  driving  a  car  along  a  coun¬ 
try  road.  An  elderly  man  attempted  to  cross  the 
road.  Under  the  direction  of  these  two  auto  hogs 
the  car  struck  this  traveler,  knocking  him  down 
and  killing  him.  The  car  stopped  and  the  two  auto 
hogs  got  out,  lifted  the  body  of  the  man,  drove  past 
a  hospital  two  miles  from  where  the  man  was 
struck,  placed  the  body  by  the  side  of  a  bush  on  the 
road  and  drove  away.  The  body  was  found  and  the 
men  who  will  deliberately  strike  a  human  being  in 
this  way,  kill  him,  and  deliberately  carry  his  body 
to  some  lonely  place,  and  throw  it  out  by  the  road¬ 
side,  getting  off  with  a  light  sentence ! 
That  is  an  illustration  of  the  way  these  auto  hogs 
are  protected  and  dealt  with.  They  come  out  to 
our  farms,  steal  our  produce,  destroy  our  property 
and  get  away  with  a  light  fine,  which  means  no 
punishment  whatever,  and  now  it  seems  that  in 
New  England  they  may  even  kill  people  and  escape 
with  a  mere  vacation  in  a  comfortable  house  of  cor¬ 
rection.  We  should  like  to  have  the  job  of  correct¬ 
ing  a  few  of  these  hogs,  after  a  plan  of  our  own. 
We  will  guarantee  that  after  the  form  of  correc¬ 
tion  they  would  hesitate  to  get  within  15  rods  of 
any  innocent  traveler  on  the  highway. 
Buying  Real  Estate  from  Administrator 
I  wish  to  purchase  a  chicken  plant  in  this  State,  and 
have  made  an  offer  to  the  administrator  of  the  estate 
to  pay  a  certain  amount  and  assume  the  debts  of  the 
creditors  against  the  estate  if  they  are  willing  to  make 
such  an  arrangement.  I  am  told  by  the  administrator 
that  it  is  my  duty  to  arrange  with  each  creditor  per¬ 
sonally  before  the  deal  can  be  consummated.  I  want 
to  know  if  a  prospective  purchaser  must  perform  this 
work  of  the  administrator  in  arranging  the  sale. 
New  Yor.  G.  E.  M. 
E  do  not  like  the  plan  which  you  propose  of 
buying  the  property  in  question.  An  adminis¬ 
trator  has  no  power  to  sell  real  property  unless  it  is 
