353 
American Agriculturist, April 5,1924 
The Good Old County of Dutchess 
{Continued from page 337 ) 
family camped in the old-time living- 
room was not reassuring. I wonder if the 
now dead man who built that house 
ever dreamed of the sort of fo'k who would 
therein some day set up their family gods. 
There must now be some thousands of 
examples in our State of where men born 
beyond the seas inhabit the homes that 
a n" earlier generation of native American 
farmers built. This is in some ways a 
depressing fact. Still—it is my favorite 
contention that our great American 
“Melting Pot” can work miracles and as 
for my low-browed woman of whom I 
speak, I hope—nay—believe that her 
grandchildren will be patriotic citizens 
and good farmers. 
* * * 
I suppose there is not a single county in 
the State which does not offer certain 
' crops or agricultural practices which are 
unique and interesting. I might speak of 
the Harlem Valley over close to the Con¬ 
necticut line down which almost from the 
beginning of the milk-shipping industry, 
a great flood of milk has flowed—via the 
Harlem railroad—to New York. This 
region has some splendid barns—barns 
so big and pretentious that I am puzzled 
to decide if they, have really been built 
out of the soil or if they merely represent 
city money being spent on the farm and 
this in spite of the fact that usually I 
can recognize the earmarks of the farm 
where some city man has gone adventur¬ 
ing. 
Dutchess County is on the whole hardly 
to be called a specialized orchard region, 
but the townships of Poughkeepsie and 
LaGrange have a great deal of recent and 
well cared for plantings and the promise 
of future large production. But Red 
Hook, which is the northwest corner town¬ 
ship of the county, has an old and very 
highly developed orchard industry. 
I suppose that apples in the Hudson 
Valley are rather less troubled by fungus 
disease than on the Ontario Shore. A 
loyal Hudson River grower will even in¬ 
sist that they get better color and flavor 
than is possible to attain farther west. 
The Valley seems to have one rather 
locally grown variety that has a special 
place and price in the world, especially 
for export to England—-the Newtown 
Pippin. Concerning the relative ad¬ 
vantages of the Ontario Shore and the 
Hudson Valley for orcharding, I do not 
propose to take sides, but in any case, 
everywhere, the man who calls hitnself 
an orchardist and is not prepared to fight 
insects and fungus with poison and fungi¬ 
cides had better stop trying to be an 
orchardist and become something else. 
* * * 
The one agricultural industry in the 
country that is unique is the growing 
of violets under glass. Of course only a 
very little section is needed for this, 
centering in the village of Rhinebeck and 
spreading out for a few miles around it. 
There are scores (I wonder if I might 
venture to say hundreds?) of greenhouses 
devoted to this purpose. The industry 
became important as much as forty years 
ago and at one time knew some very 
palmy days, but for a number of years now 
it has been on the decline. There are 
plenty of very expensive plants lying 
unused and going to swift decay. I am 
told that the business is not more than 
one-half as extensive as it was in its 
golden prime. The reason for this de¬ 
cline is partly cultural plant lice and 
crown rot and various other diseases and 
partly because Fashion—always a fickle 
j^de—has shifted to other flowers. The 
blossoms are sold at so much per hundred 
(usually tied up in bunches of fifty flowers) 
and this winter the highest price has been 
about $1.65 per hundred blooms, which is 
called a remunerative return. The glass 
houses (there may be several in a group) 
are commonly about 24 feet wide and 
150 feet long. Violets can be grown at a 
temperature much lower than roses or 
ferns and a daytime temperature of 60 
degrees will be satisfactory while at night 
the house may be allowed to fall close to 
the freezing point. Despite some recent 
discouraging conditions a lot of men are 
still sticking to it and one man assured me 
that this winter his violet house was 
supporting the rest of the farm. If 
there be one thing in the world that sym¬ 
bolizes luxury it is hot-house flowers and 
here we see a locally important industry 
carried on in order that a lovely woman 
may wear a mass of glowing purple bloom 
upon her breast. 
* * * 
There is another feature of the county 
which is an unfailing source of wonder to 
those of us who live far “up-state” away 
from our greatest city—I mean the 
“estate country” which is so highly 
developed along the Hudson River front. 
A drive along the Old Post Road from 
Poughkeepsie north to say Rhinebeck is 
a wonderful revelation of the way in which 
certain men in America have first piled 
up money and then in turn have lavished 
it vin the creating of princely country 
estates. Of course there are hundreds of 
such show places belonging to city men 
in southern Columbia and Dutchess 
and Westchester Counties and also on 
Long Island and northern New Jersey, 
as well as farther afield in New England 
or the Carolinas or for that matter almost 
anywhere in the world, but perhaps no¬ 
where is there a more unbroken array of 
them than along this famous stretch of 
Old Post Road. This particular region 
has been devoted to this sort of thing for 
very many years, as is attested by its air 
of maturity and the age of the planted 
avenues of old trees. There are miles on 
miles of wonderful stonewall, some of it 
laid of cut stone with towering carved 
gateways opening on driveways leading 
far back to the big house that in its turn 
will overlook the broad, gleaming river. 
The casual passer-by has small oppor¬ 
tunity to see these feudal castles for they 
are far from the highway and screened 
by trees. 
* * * 
So I glimpse at them ju§t for a brief 
moment as a fleeting sight of a strange 
new world—a world that symbolizes the 
ppmp and power and luxury of great 
wealth. Then I remember other and 
better known New York scenes—pictures 
of white farmhouses and red barns and 
children coming home from school, and 
homing cattle trailing down the winding 
road and men and women happy in 
their toil—I remember these pictures 
and I am glad and I am well content. 
Cows Indicate Sterility 
{Continued from page 345) 
feeding is all that could be asked for), 
traumatic conditions, such as strains, 
and lastly fibrous tumors. 
Another condition causing considerable 
loss in dairy herds is a micro-organism 
known as the Bacillus of Bang. After 
this organism enters the system it matures 
best in or around the cervix of the cow, 
causing inflammatory conditions, even to 
the extent of causing abortion. There are 
times that it has been known to produce 
sterility even after the animal has calved 
in a normal condition, leaving a sterile 
condition without any abnormal sign or 
excretion from the internal organs. 
While all or any of the above conditions 
may be accountable for sterility, it strikes 
us that in your case it is a question of age 
or perhaps other service. If the animal is 
valuable it would be a good idea to call in 
your local veterinary to make a thorough 
physical examination. In the case of 
your four-year-old, which should also be 
examined, it may be that an injection of 
Prophylactic Serum would eliminate the 
condition, the injection being made at 
the time the animal is being served and 
also at the three-month and seven-month 
period of pregnancy. 
$100,000 a day for Taxes 
T HE high cost of government is a burden 
of which every citizen must bear his share. 
It is one of the large factors in the high cost 
of living. 
Taxes are a part of the cost of everything we 
eat, wear or use. Nothing escapes and no 
consumer can escape paying. 
In the freight and passenger rates,paid by the 
public last year were Federal, State and local 
taxes reaching the record figure of $336,000,000. 
New York Central Lines taxes amounted to 
$37,605,560, or more than $100,000 a day; near¬ 
ly three times what they were ten years ago. 
Every citizen has a vital interest in cutting 
down the tax burden. 
NEW YORK CENTRAL LINES 
BOSTON & ALBANY-MICHIGAN CENTRAL-BIG FOUR- PITTSBURGH &LAKE ERIE 
AND THE NEW YORK CENTRAL AND SUBSIDIARY LINES 
Qeneral Offices —466 Lexington Ave., New York 
How to Check Cow 
Ailments at their Source 
The dairy cow is an exceptionally hardy 
animal and subject to very few ailments 
except those which attack the digestive and 
genital organs. These particular organs, 
being the milk-making function, are often 
overworked and unable to throw off such 
diseases as Barrenness, Abortion, Retained 
Afterbirth, Scours, Bunches, Milk Fever, 
Lost Appetite. 
FREE 
BOOK 
These ailments can he successfully treated 
—and just as surely prevented—by the use 
of Kow-Kare, because it is especially de¬ 
signed to tone up and strengthen the di¬ 
gestive and genital organs. A proper func¬ 
tioning of these important organs eliminates 
the cause of disease. 
But the real profit of dairying today is 
made by keeping disease out while the milk¬ 
making organs are working at top-notch. 
Kow-Kare, in moderate quantity in the ra¬ 
tion one week out of each month, induces 
a maximum milk flow and keeps the cow'g 
disease-resistance up to par. In thousands 
of dairies Kow-Kare is now as much a part 
of the feeding routine as grains or silage'. 
Its use costs, on the average, not more than 
a cent a day per cow. 
Kow-Kare Is sold by general stores, feed 
dealers and druggists—large size $1.25; me¬ 
dium size 65c. If dealer is not supplied, 
order direct. We pay postage. Ask for 
copy of free book, “The Home Cow Doctor.” 
DAIRY ASSOCIATION CO. INC. 
Lyndonville, \U 
DOG 
BOOK 
FREE 5 
82 page book—how to keep your 
dog well — how to care for him 
When sick. Result of 36 years’ experi¬ 
ence with every known dog disease. 
Mailed FREE. Write today. Dept, 304. 
H. CLAY GLOVER, V. S. 
129 West 24th St. New York 
Eels, Mink, Muskrats and 
Jf lSil* other animals in large num- 
. ... . 7 bers SURE—with our new 
folding, galvanized Steel Wire Traps. They catch 
them a ?y tra P catches flies. Write for our FBEE trap 
offer, bargain catalog of Fishermen’s Supplies and booklet 
on best lure known for catching all kinds of fish. Aets.wtd. 
WALTON SUPPLY CO., Deft 22 St. Louis, Mo. 
