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certain per cent. to the cost price for profit. The
middleman, to whom farm produce sales are generally
made, fixes what he shall receive regardless of the
cost to him; and the salesman of whatever he buys
says what he shall pay. Here's hoping for the glad-
some day when well-organized cooperation shall re-
lieve him of his dictators. In the meantime his alter-
native is to produce as cheaply as possible; and to
this end the handling of his work economically and
expeditiously is an important factor. The tractor
will be of material help to him where conditions are
adapted to its use. It is not “at home” on all farms.
The land must be what is ordinarily termed level or
gently undulating. If the land is “rolling” the undula-
tions must not be abrupt. The soil should not be
infested with stone, neither need it be entirely free
from them, but the presence of stone has more par-
ticular application to plows pulled by engine power
than to the use of the tractor itself. The owner of
what may be called a traction farm can under normal
"conditions in stubble land plow from 12 to 14 acres
a day with six engine plows. The gasoline consumed .
will be about 25 gallons. Taking the minimum figure
for acres turned and 25 gallons used, we have this
charge:
Gasoline at 15.2 cents per gallon......
Engine oil, gear oil and grea'se.......
Owners time .. ‘
Plow tender ..'
$8.65
This is at the rate of 72 cents an acre, on the basis
of the ligure given for the owner’s time, which I think
will be considered a reasonable charge. If four plows
were used and a drag or disk attached, the gasoline
consumed would be about the same and the acreage
of course proportionately reduced. I shall not pre-
sume here to compare this work with the cost ol
doing it with horses. Every farmer can figure that
for himself. In my own experience I have never
hired plowing done for less than $2 an acre, and also
boarded the teams and men.
A HARD SEASON.-The foregoing has been writ-
ten with normal weather conditions in mind. I do not
pretend to say that in Fond du lac County, ‘Viscou-
sirt, the operationipf a tractor has been one round of
joy in 1912; neither has it been in operations with
horses. There is. of course, this difference: Ilorses
can wallow through where a tractor will whirl its
drivers and require fence posts to crawl out on. I am
free to confess that, in common with my neighbors,
my plowing is not all done, I have not sown a bushel
of “'inter grain, and the bank spoken of still has
plenty of deposits. But this would not have been the
case had Nature been fairly reasonable. Ever since
early Spring rains have descended and floods have
come as if preparing to float another ark. The season
now waning into "chill November's surly blast” has
disorganized the farmers’ plans of operation ever since
it opened. 50 it is that I have not had the use of
my tractor that would have been afforded if the patient
tillers of this section had not been floating in a sea of
mud. instead of 2101')’. Since APT“ WED?-
VARIED USE OF TRACTOR.-But, withal, I
doubt if any purchaser of at tractor that is reliable
under fair tests would care to dispose of it bemuse
he cannot always use it when he an use horses.
Ever ready for the belt, if not for the draw-bar, it
is the nearest to an all-around farm power plant yet
produced. It can be used on the highway for road
work or hauling when the fields are too soft for it.
There is a great saving of time in hauling several
vralgon loads at one trip. Each wagon should be
equipped with a stub tongue and 2. "U" on the rear
axle. My experience in hauling for carload ship-
ments of hay and sugar beets has convinced me of
the time-saving qualities of traction power. I have
tried it out in the grain Eeld, where binders attached
to it run as steadily as the throbbing of the engine:
no reaching out with a long stick to punch the “third
horse," which invariably learns to favor its tugs. Last
Fall I plowed, disked and harrowed in one operation
for Winter wheat and rye, leaving the ground ready
for the drill. M to power for pulley-driven machin-
cry, my tractor takes the farm thrasher, “sets” it
where wanted, turns about and lines up for the belt;
or, ii there ‘be a scarcity of help, it will haul a string
of wagons loaded with bundles to the machine, and
then furnish the power to thrash the grain. It will
run the silage cutter, the husker, the feed mill--any-
thing with a pulley on it. And this double-opposed
engine will operate the machinery as steadily as if
steam-driven. and requires no engineer to watch it,
nor a team hauling water to allay its thirst. It simply
asks that it be supplied with gasoline, proper lubri-
cants, the occasional replenishment of water lost by
.. '3
THE RURAL NEVV-YORKER
evaporation, and be given the inspection and, care due
to any piece of machinery of its class. . .‘ T. V ,
I believe in the farm tractor;'and I predict that
in 10 years it will be a part of the equipment of the
rnaiority-of farms of 200 acres and upwards, which
are adapted to its use.
find diversity in its manifold uses, and companionship
in the life of its mechanism. In the accompanying
cuts Fig. 505 shows my tractor pulling four I4-inch
plows and a three-horse disk, thus doing the work
of 11 horses. I have also used it with a half section
of a drag back of the disk, which would require one
horse. An Acme harrow has sometimes been used
in place of the drag, which would require two horses.
In “lagging up’ ground I have worked two disks, one
just back of apd slightly lapping the other, two Acme
harrows united for four-horse bitch, and a two-horse
drag, attached in the order named. "The hay-hauling
scene Fig. 506, is on the bighwaybetween farm and
railway siding. At the time‘this picture was taken
the tractor would easily have pulled two more wagon
loads. . . 11. A. nusn.
Fond du Lac Co.. Wis. . '
GRAFTING IN THE FALL.
Last Spring Charles Black or New Jersey told of graft.
ng Ipple trees Winter. When he reported the grafts
were promising. What: was the outcome? I,bave much
grafting to do, and it put of it could be done 11: ‘Winter
lt would be a help. . - , . ‘c 1,
Missouri.
I said I set 15 grafts early in December and more
on Christmas Day. In‘ those set first there was not a
single failure, but of the lot set on Christmas a few
failed owing to not being able to make the wax work
well. These grafts were set in a. good-sized apple
tree, and the remainder of the tree was grafted in
April at the usual time, and no one can tell the De-
cember set from those set in April. All have done
well and made a good growth. I feel satished from
my experiment that grafts can be set (if properly
done). any time after the tree becomes perfectly
dormant, or from November until Spring. There is
no particular advantage in setting grafts in the‘Fall
or lVinter, only to those who do not have the oppor-
tunity to do it in the Spring. Anyone who makes
claims that the Fall grafting is advantageous and
makes extra charges for it is liumbugging th public.
The principle is that the same amount of circulation
of,sap inlviuter that keeps life in the branches of
a tree will keep the properly set graft alive also.
Many contend that there is no circulation of sap in a.
dormant tree, but there is a certain amount or the
tree would shrivel up the same as a daached branch.
New Jersey. ' CHARLES mncx.
CULTURE OF HORSERADISH.
1. mm ls thevbest soil for raising ‘horseradish and
what methods are employed‘! Where can you sell ginseng?
Maryland 4:. G.
Horseradish requires a deep, rich loarn, such as is
found in the best market gardens. for the develop-
ment of good marketable roots. It will not succeed
on poor or thin soil; a piece of ground naturally
moist and other soil conditions being favorable makes
an ideal location for a horseradish garden. If the
soil is not naturally rich it must be made so by heavy
applications of manure, not less than 40 leads to the
acre, turned under deeply. The deeper the ground is
plowed, the better; the roots being the part used,
nothing should be left undone that will encourage
highest development. In most of the large market
gardens in the vicinity of the large Eastern cities
horseradish is usually grown as a secondary crop,
being planted among cabbage, cauliflower or beets.
which it succeeds, and is planted in the following
manner: lVhen the ground is marked out for early
cauliflower or cabbage a one-foot marker is used.
Every alternate row is first planted with the cauli-
flower or cabbage, which stand when planted two
feet apart between the rows and 18 to 20 inches apart
in the row, After the planting of these crops is
finished, the horseradish is planted between the rows
and at about 16 inches apart in the row, which is
usually done about the latter part of April. The
planting of the horseradish'is done by making a
hole, eight to 10 inches deep, with a light iron bar
or long planting stick. Into each hole a set is dropped
so that its top will be about three indies underground.
The soil should be pressed in alongside the set so as
to fill up the hole.
The principal reason for planting the set so deep
is to delay its coming up until the crop of cabbage
or cauliflower is cleared oil’. As the horseradish
makes its main growth in the Fall, it will suffer no
injury if kept from growing until the latter part of
June or fort-part of July. If any of the sets should
start into early growth, the tops can be chopped off
with the hoe without injury. The roots or sets are
cut into pieces four to five inches long, and should
The boys of the farm will.
Deceuiber 7.
be made from roots ‘one-fourth‘, to one-half inch in
diameter, the topiend being cut-off at right angles
and the lower end diagonal so as readily to distinguish
the top from the lower end of the root at time of
planting. The sets when prepared are tied in bundles
of fifty to 75 and are stored away in boxes of sand,
being careful to get sullieient sand between the bunches
to prevent them from hating. They can either be
kept in the boxes in a cool cellar or buried in the
ground; the open ground is preferable. ,
2. Ginseng is usually sold through fur dealers or
commission merchants. A number of nrrus handling
raw furs make a specialty of ginseng.
THE LUTHER BURBANK SOCIETY.
I have something for you to investigate. A friend
of mine writes to me about the Luther Burbank So-
ciety, asking if I would advise his joining it. The
letter inviting him states that he will he ‘one of its
first 1(1) life members.‘ Now, as he is an intelligent
but unobtrusive member of society, the query evi-
dently in his mind, as it is in mine, is why he should
be selected to be one of the first hundred life members
while there are thousands far more distinguished, if
not more worthy. For example, why should he be
selected.while such distinguished men as Roosevelt,
VVilson, Taft, Secretary 'VVilson, Dr. VViley, John
Sullivan and “Smoky Joe,” the famous baseball
pitcher of the Red Sox, are passed over?
Perhaps these men are alreadyenrolled, have paid
their $1 “application fee" and have agreed to pay $10
per mouthfor 15 months, until $150 is paid, for full
membership; whereupon they will be entitled to 12
volumes of Luther Burbank’s works, “bound strictly
for the life members of the Luther Burbank Society,’
which, according to the by-laws of the society, may
‘be extended to 500, but according to the secretary of
the society, “its present intention is to limit member-
ship very rigidly, in order that a truly representative
body of men from many varied lines of industry may
he enlisted in the cause."
I 1'10“ in 9" membefsllip "acceptance" that there
are already 43 distinguished men and women enrolled,
and as my friend comes, by number, earl in the
second half of the first hundred, be naturally feels
very much flattered (and who would not?), inasmuch
as it entitles the exclusive century men: r to some
additional valuable perquisites in the shape of original
proof sheets ‘bound in loose leaf covers.’ colored
photograph; a card of admission to Luther Bur-
bank’s acperimmt farms, a similar admission to half
a dozen friends of the representative subscribers, and
Enally “each life member is requested to submit his
own suggestions, but is not bound to do :0.’
Now, although my friend is not a distinguished
lrorliculturist, he, no doubt, might be able to make
valuable suggestions with reference to crossing cu-
cumbers with cauliflower for pickling purposes and
corn with beans for ready-grown succotash. All
this, of course, appeals to one, especially as he is to
be one of the first hundred, and only 500 cm-oued
all told. He wants to know if, in my opinion, the
honor, and incidentally the books, and cspgcL1]]’ the
perquisites, are worth the price namely $151. I um.
fess I do not know, so I appeal to you. I enclose
documents, which kindly examine and return wiu:
your opinion on the same. ' A 1,
R. N.-Y.-“fell, sir, we, personally, will hold on
to the $151 and let some one'else share these honors.
The letter to which our frimd refers is a printed
circular, accompanied by a little book. lVc have
already received 30 or more of these letters. Our
judgment is that thousands of them have been sent
out, and each man who receive: one feels that he has
been selected as one of 58 great and noble characters
to shine as “life members” and incidentally put up
$151. Among the persons given as members already
elected are Helen Gould, Jane Addams, champ c1,-Hg
etc. It would be a man of some character who would
not feel’ flattered at the invitation to walk through
life arm in arm with such people, 1f "A R)’ want;
our opinion of this game we give it cheerfullyI It
looks to us like the slickest scheme for milking money
Out 1l11'0“8l1 3 m3“'S bump of vanity that ever went
down the road flirting for stickers.
No sale for Dnul.-h rnbbage even at $2 per ton. City
people still pulnz. I suppose. 10 cents a head or about
:'0 per ton. ’ K
Geneva, N. 1'. 7
WC l-‘kc ‘hi! Question for a little examination of the
35-ccnt dollar. Al the time the question was received
Danish cabbage. wholcsaled at $6 to $8 here. At retail
this cabbage brings from two to four cents per pound.
This difference depends upon quality and where the
Cabbage IS bought. You pay more for "style” even in
Cabbage at some stores. Loose and small heads mav
sell at pne cent. Probably 2% cents a pound would
be a fair average, and this means $50 per ton! . Our
lflriendlfmay figure the size of the produccr's dollar for
Irnse . ‘ '