64 
HOUSE & GARDEN 
^utniture 
of every notable epoch, 
incuding many specially 
designed pieces, is re¬ 
tailed at no prohibitive 
cost in this great estab¬ 
lishment, devoted exclusively to 
Furniture. 
Suggestions may be 
gained from de luxe prints 
of well appointed rooms, 
which will be sent gratis 
upon request. 
J^cuilJork (Salle ricis 
Grand Rapids Rirmiure Company 
INCORPORATED 
34 ~ 36 West 32- St.. NewYork 
The “HOLD-FAST” 
casement adjuster — a sash 
operator of unusually hand¬ 
some appearance. 
With the “Hold-Fast” you 
can easily adjust and lock 
your windows in any position 
without disturbing screens or 
storm sash. 
The “Hold-Fast” is one of 
the C-H casement necessities 
described in our Handbook. 
It’s Free—Write Now 
THE CASEMENT HARDWARE CO. 
1 So. Clinton Street Chicago, III. 
W HEN Santa gives a car 
for Christmas, he usually 
must provide a garage 
soon after. Stanley Garage 
Hardware insures doors that 
work easily and close snugly, 
as weather-tight as the front 
door of your home. 
The Stanley Garage Door Holder 
pictured above, holds your 
doors safely open for the en¬ 
trance or departure of your car. 
Write today for the Garage booklet 
“H”. It contains interesting in¬ 
formation of value to garage owners 
and builders. 
The Stanley Works, New Britain, Conn. 
New York Chicago 
Making the Farm Pay 
( Continued, from page 46) 
As the season went on, overproduc¬ 
tion sent the price down to 25 cents 
in some parts of the country. In our 
locality the price did not go below 
30 cents a bushel, but here was an¬ 
other losing game. 
We began to look around and in¬ 
quire how the small farmer through 
the country manages to live. They 
said of one man: “He gets along and 
saves money because he has a family 
of nine children all big enough to 
work on the place.” 
After these investigations in our 
neighborhood we concluded that the 
average farmer makes only interest on 
his investment and a working wage 
for day labor out of his work, and 
then only when his wife and children 
work and do not count their labor. 
He does not then get all his day 
wages in money, but rather in food 
from the farm, house rent and fuel. 
What, then, is going to become of 
the man who hires his labor? He 
may, if he is lucky, get enough from 
the farm to pay the hired men. He 
must look elsewhere for his own liv¬ 
ing. The average farm will not pay 
for an idle hand, even if he be the 
proprietor himself. 
Deducting a lesson from all this, we 
came to realize that, as we hire labor, 
we cannot do much more than pay 
that labor with the proceeds of any 
crop grown under ordinary condi¬ 
tions with ordinary skill and care. 
Therefore, if we grew intercrops, 
there was not much chance of having 
enough profit left to pay for the nec¬ 
essary care of the trees through the 
season. Hence, as we are trying to 
raise trees primarily, we decided to 
pay attention to them and not to 
crops. We must find some way to 
prevent soil erosion. We must find 
the cheapest way properly to fertilize 
and cultivate the trees, and wait to 
get our money back until we can pro¬ 
duce the “superior quantity and qual¬ 
ity of apples” we want. 
Sod Mulching 
We knew that we must get these 
extra fine crops at a minimum cost, 
to make good. So at this stage we 
turned our attention to the sod-mulch 
system of cultivation. 
From the Pennsylvania State Col¬ 
lege Bulletin No. 100, we learned 
that “Where tillage is impracticable, 
and sometimes where it is available, 
a proper mulch is often very satisfac¬ 
tory, as indicated in our results. The 
chief values of this system may be 
summed up as follows: 
“It avoids corrosion on sloping 
ground; reduces labor; apparently 
hastens the bearing in young trees; 
may assist in blight control; and ef¬ 
fectually conserves moisture if mulch 
is maintained sufficiently deep (about 
3" or 4", at least).” 
The United States Department of 
Agriculture Farmer’s Bulletin No. 
267 says of some experiments in dif¬ 
ferent cultivations: “The advantage 
of the sod-mulch method is that it is 
equally well adapted to orchards on 
sloping or steep grounds, where cul¬ 
tivation cannot be well performed, 
or on level lands. It has the advan¬ 
tage of sightliness at all times and 
permits of general orchard opera¬ 
tions like pruning, spraying, gather¬ 
ing fruit, etc., during rainy weather, 
when the cultivated ground would be 
soft and muddy. 
“The better growth of the trees 
under the sod-mulch system is be¬ 
lieved to be due to the certainty and 
uniformity of the generous store of 
fertility right at hand, the concentra¬ 
tion of an abundance of plant food 
where it is most available, and the 
consequent presentation of conditions 
beneath the mulch of vegetable mat¬ 
ter especially favorable to a healthy, 
continuous nourishment of the trees.” 
Acting on this advice we fell into 
line and, turning our backs on the 
methods we had already tried, went 
in for sod-mulch. 
The steepest part of the orchard, 
where there was most soil erosion, 
was plowed, harrowed and sown to a 
mixture of grass, clover and alfalfa 
planted with rye. This was done 
early in September, and the rye 
grew enough before cold weather 
to protect the land fairly well from 
winter washing. The next spring the 
rye grew rapidly, nursing the young- 
grass along. When the rye stood 
less than 2' high it was cut down 
with the mowing machine and left 
where it fell, thus keeping the ground 
well protected so that the grass grew 
thriftily. In spots where the soil 
erosion had depleted the land, ma¬ 
nure was hauled and used to stimu¬ 
late the growth of the young grass. 
Cover-Crop Success 
The summer was one of pelting 
rains. As we looked over the or¬ 
chard hillside fast covering with a 
good sod and showing no traces of 
erosion, we thanked a kindly prov¬ 
idence that the grass had been 
started when it was. Fields near our 
orchard, and on less steep ground, 
had been sown to buckwheat. They 
were practically washed away by the 
continuous rain before the grain 
could catch enough to be any protec¬ 
tion. It wdll be years before they 
can be restored to the fertility which 
was theirs last spring. 
Early that spring the remaining 
acres of the orchard were plowed, 
harrowed and planted with the same 
mixture of grass, clover and alfalfa, 
sown with a nurse crop of oats. 
These oats were to be cut green for 
a mulch through the dry part of the 
summer, but it rained every day and, 
in these spots, the soil was too soft 
to hold a team with a mowing ma¬ 
chine without cutting furrows that 
would ruin the future sod. So the 
oats grew and grew. Harvest time 
came before it stopped raining. The 
oats were finally cut, principally by 
hand. We received from this ven¬ 
ture 220 bushels of oats, which, ow¬ 
ing to the wet season, were literally 
sent us from heaven. However, this 
land will have to be manured thor¬ 
oughly to pay back the soil for what 
the extra crop consumed. 
As the sod-mulch, once started, was 
to last over a term of years, we 
added it to the investment column in 
the ledger. The cost follows: 
Preparation of seed bed and sow¬ 
ing— 
Plowing . $184.30 
Rolling . 9.05 
Removing stone . 10.62 
Liming . 12.57 
Harrowing . 68.87 
Sowing . 51.16 
336.57 
Cost of material— 
Lime . 16.00 
Grass mixture . 100.00 
Oats . 6.00 
Rye . 30.00 
152.00 
Total investment in sod-mulch 
system .$488.57 
At the end of the first year in sod- 
mulch the young trees showed a 
growth of from 36" to 45". The 
leaves were healthy and of a rich, 
dark green color that proves they 
were well supplied with nitrogen. 
There were few insect pests. 
itiiisipiiiu 
^ LUTTON 
Greenhouses 
are scientifically and architecturally correct. 
Send for full particulars of the LUTTON 
curved eave rust-proof V-Bar Greenhouses 
recent views, and a sample V-Bar section. 
Wm. H. Lutton Co., JerseyotT* l 
Modern Greenhouses of all Types and Sizes 
Conservatories :: :: Cold Frames 
$5—for this “4-Room” 
Dodson Wren House 
Built of oak; roof of 
cypress with copper cop¬ 
ing. ITangs from a limb. 
The Bird-lovers’ best 
Christmas Gift. 
Brings the Birds 
3 = 5 ^ A big house like this 
Made ( ) will bring one or two 
by the families of wrens to live 
Man the O with you next summer— 
D ir j. V cheerful, friendly, musical 
anas Love * bjr(J tenants that pay ren t 
by contributing to the general joy of living. 
Mr. Dodson, a director of the American 
Audubon Association, has spent 22 years learn¬ 
ing how to build bird houses that attract the 
birds. Wrens, blue-birds, martins, each must 
have its own especial style house. The right 
kind— the Dodson Kind —brings back the bird 
families year after year. Their perfection has 
been a labor of love. 
If you want the birds next summer, get your 
houses now and set them up to “weather.” 
The birds like them better. 
The Ideal Christmas Gift 
A Dodson Bird House is an inexpensive gift, 
most appreciated by nature loving friends. 
Cost from $1.50 to $12. The wren house illus¬ 
trated can be enjoyed by every one who has a 
tree to hang it on. Entire collection described 
in catalog, with prices. Includes bird baths, 
winter feeding devices, etc. All are patented. 
^^ 11 *FT h e illustrated 
oira dook r ree-, > 0 d s 0 n book 
tells how to attract native birds to your garden. 
With it we send, also free, a beautiful picture, 
in color, from “Nature Neighbors,” worthy of 
framing. Write to 
JOSEPH H. DODSON 
731 Harrison Avenue, Kankakee, III. 
(6) 
The Ideal Fence 
For Large Estates 
is the fence that adequately serves its 
purpose from the standpoint of protec¬ 
tion and at the same time adds distinc¬ 
tion and lasts longest. 
XCE LSIOIF I ron 
-S r- 7 7 ^ Fence 
is practically everlasting. Set the posts 
in concrete and know that your fence will 
not become tumble-down. Made in va¬ 
rious styles. Special designs on request. 
Appropriate for Parks. Cemeteries, Recreation 
Playgrounds, Industrial Plants, etc. Ask your 
hardware dealer about Etxcelsior Rust Proof 
and Chain Link Fences, Trellises. Trellis 
Arches. Bed Guards and Tree Guards. Write 
for catalog C. 
WRIGHT WIRE COMPANY, Worcester, Mass. 
