264 
American Agriculturist, March 24,1923 
Editorial Page of the American 
Agriculturist 
American 
Agriculturist 
Founded 1842 
Henry Morgenthau, Jr .Publisher 
E. R. Eastman .Editor 
Fred W. Ohm .Associate Editor 
Gabrielle Elliot .... Household Editor 
BiRGE Kinne .Advertising Manager 
H. L. VoNDERLiETH . . . Circulation Manager 
CONTRIBUTING STAFF 
Herbert E. Cook .... Flow Handle Talks 
Jared Van Wagenen, Jr. . Van Wagenen Corner 
Herschel H. Jones . . . Market Department 
K. J. T. Ekblaw . Farm Engineering Department 
Paul Work .Vegetable Department 
George T. Hughes .... Investment Adviser 
Dr. S. K. Johnson .... Veterinary Adviser 
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Published Weekly by 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, INC. 
Address all correspondence for editorial, advertising, or 
subscription departments to 
461 Fourth Ave., New York, N. Y. 
Entered as Second-Class Matter, December 15. 1922, at the 
Post Office at New York, N. Y., under the Act of March 3, 1879. 
Subscription price, payable in advance, $1 a year. 
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VOL. Ill March 24, 1923 NO. 12 
An Eastern Apple Show 
P LANS are being made to hold a great 
Eastern Apple Exposition and Fruit Show 
at the Grand Central Palace, New York City, 
from November 3 to 10, 1923. The Show 
will be representative of the fruit products 
of all of the Eastern States, southward^ to 
North Carolina, and will have the backing 
of fruit producers and their organizations, 
of the State Agricultural ‘Departments, and 
of fruit handlers. All of those, in. fact, in¬ 
terested in growing, transporting and mar¬ 
keting the products of one of agriculture’s 
greatest industries are expected to help make 
a really great exhibit. 
Such a show will do much to advertise 
the fine quality of Eastern grown apples and 
other fruit products. Although Wiestern 
producers’ fruit is of no better quality, and 
although they are much farther from the 
great markets, yet they have been able be¬ 
cause of better advertising and marketing 
to outsell the Eastern producers who have 
the best markets near at hand. Therefore, 
we think this exposition is a step in the right 
direction, and we hope that it will receive 
full and unqualified support from everybody 
concerned. _ 
Lime Is Fundamental 
W E once put in several weary days one 
summer mowing clover with a scythe 
in a field that was so filled with stumps and 
stones that a mowing machine could not be 
used. Never before, or since, have we seen 
clover that grew as rank and as high as it 
did on that piece of virgin soil. Yet to-day, 
twenty years afterwards, we will wager that 
there is no clover growing there, for such 
has been the history of nearly all hill lands 
of the East that were not underlaid with 
limestone. 
Our forefathers in these Eastern States 
grew stands of clover almost without effort. 
The fertility of the land had not been ex¬ 
hausted and most of it had a little trace of 
limestone in it. But later our fathers found 
that for some reason which they did not 
understand, it was very difficult to get and 
maintain a stand of clover on the hill, or 
even the valley, farms of the East. 
How clovers have been brought back to 
stay by using lime is well told in the feature 
story by Mr. Conway in this issue. Don’t 
miss it. 
Many times it is lime and not fertilizer 
that the soil needs, and many times th& 
fertilizer is much more effective if the soil 
has had its proper feeding of lime. Lime¬ 
stone is the wizard of agriculture. We be¬ 
lieve the practice of applying it is funda¬ 
mental to our Eastern farming, for with it 
old soils have been made to renew their youth 
and blossom again like a rose, and with it a 
new agriculture can be built with the clover 
and other legumes grown again as our fore¬ 
fathers grew them when the soil was young. 
Committee To Find TB Control Plan 
T his paper announced last week the ap¬ 
pointment by the New York State Farm 
Bureau Federation of a competent committee 
to make a study of different methods for 
handling tuberculosis among dairy cattle and 
to make recommendations for more rapid 
eradication of the great scourge. 
The committee has already begun its work, 
and one of the first things it did was to draft 
a resolution calling upon the Legislature for 
adequate appropriations to finance future 
eradication work. We were particularly 
pleased to see this resolution because Ameri¬ 
can Agriculturist had already taken the po¬ 
sition that appropriations for eradiction 
work should be made in advance and not 
come dragging along months after the obliga¬ 
tions by the State had been incurred. 
Although a tremendous amount of work 
has been done toward controlling tuberculosis 
in dairy cattle, j^et a start toward the great 
task has only been made, and there is much 
difference of opinion as to just what is the 
best method of procedure. 
The committee appointed is made up of 
men of long practical and first hand experi¬ 
ence with ^the tuberculosis problem. They 
have a big job cut out for them, but if they 
can outline a plan, and we think they can, 
that will hasten the pontrol of this dreaded 
disease, dairymen will be rendered an im¬ 
measurable service. n 
/ The Spring Light 
TF farming does not pay why do farmers 
Lstay at it? There are many answers to 
this question so often asked by city folks. 
The basis of the question is wrong in the first 
place, because the great trend of population 
from country to city in the last few years 
shows that farmers are not staying in the 
business. But the chief reason why many 
farm people do stay on year after year and 
from generation to generation in the hard 
business of getting an existence from the 
soil is the compensations that come to coun¬ 
try people that money cannot buy. It is 
possible to make a home on the land, the like 
of which cannot be maintained in the city. 
A farm is the best place in the world to grow 
children. Then, there are rewards hard to 
describe and not often talked about, but 
nevertheless enjoyed, that those who live 
in the country constantly get from nature 
and the passing seasons. 
There is for instance that feeling of com¬ 
ing spring that only a farmer can appreciate 
which comes when the days begin to grow 
longer in the winter time. To be sure it is 
true that “when the days begin to lengthen 
the cold begins to strengthen,” but even so 
the lengthening days arouses that intangible 
something in every countryman, which makes 
“hope spring eternal in the human heart” 
and makes us all impatient to get busy with 
the spring work in the hope that in spite of 
experiences of past years, this year is going 
to be the year of years when things are go¬ 
ing to be different and better. 
So, along about February or March the 
wind howls across the bleak hills, piling the 
snow in drifts so large that it would seem 
they will never melt. The trees are leafless 
and apparently dead. The brooks are frozen 
and the birds are gone. But all the same at 
the close of day there comes a few moments 
.of promise when the “spring light” shows 
in the western sky, telling us that the sun is 
on its way, that the snow will soon be gone 
and that the miracle of the annual resurrec¬ 
tion is soon to come, transforming a cheer¬ 
less countryside into a blooming paradise. 
Immigration and Our Increase 
T he New York “Sun” says that the day 
is coming when humanity will be as 
crowded for elbow room in America as it 
now is in Europe. In 1920 the population 
of continental United States was 105 million. 
Three years later it was 110 million. “The 
elimination of famine, the conquest of dis¬ 
ease, the increase of health measures, and 
the other victories of medicine mean bene¬ 
fits to this generation, but may become old 
men of the sea a generation from to-day. 
Without doubt the “Sun” is right. Yet, 
in spite of these facts, there are many who 
insist on throwing the immigration gates 
wide open, thereby hastening the day when 
the further progress of the country will be 
greatly impeded by overpopulation. 
A Home or a Place to Stay 
A CORRESPONDENT writes that in a trip 
of some length through farming sections 
he is impressed with the bleak and barren 
surroundings of many farmhouses. He says 
further that a little time and attention given 
to the planting of trees, to the proper plac¬ 
ing of some quick-growing shrubbery, and 
to a good lawn would make the difference 
between just a place to stay and a real home. 
In speaking on the same subject, another 
farmer recently stated that farmers would 
like to do such things, but they did not have 
time because they were top busy trying to 
make a living. 
There is, of course, still much opportunity 
for improving and beautifying the farm¬ 
stead, but when we look back over twenty- 
five years and notice the changes that have 
taken place we think that farmers have come 
along this way pretty fast. We remember 
one valley twenty-five years ago where a 
mowed lawn, a cared-for bush or shrub or 
a pretty flower bed was something of a curi¬ 
osity. To-day there is hardly a farm in that 
valley that does not have a pretty lawn, with 
prettily arranged flowers and shrubbery, and 
well-painted buildings. 
On the other hand, as one gets back a little 
from the main-traveled roads, many, if not 
a majority, of the farmsteads are bleak and 
cheerless. There are also fairly prosperous 
farm communities where little attention has 
been given to improving appearances. It 
seems to be something where good example 
is especially powerful for two or three farm¬ 
ers in a neighborhood who start to improve 
their surroundings are soon followed by most 
of their neighbors. 
As to getting the time for work of this 
kind, it does not take much, and it greatly 
increases the value of the property. Besides, 
we think most farmers would be better off 
if they took just a little less time from work¬ 
ing to crowd a surplus market to the limit 
and just a little more time to do some of the 
things that would make life more pleasant. 
