Mower County transcript., 1906-10-24

the Rural New Yorker tells of his
experience with travelling tree agent
who represented that he was connect,
ed with a reliable and well-known
firm. He introduced himself, says the
writer, as Mr.. -; representing the
- : nurseries. They are among the
largest in the country, and I have
known of them for years. | :old him
l needed some plants and trees, but
under no circumstances would I or
der before New Years or spring plant
ing, but if he had plenty of lime, I
would look over his catalogue, make
out my order complete, except my
signature, let him indorse the Or
der, and I would send it in when
ready, so he could get his commits.
sion on the sale. He showed me
through. I found what I wanted,
prices were reasonable, and the or.
der was made out; then he said to
me: III you will sign and give me
the order now, will add gratis so and
so, and this and that" pretty near
as much in amount as the order. I
declined, and he refused to leave the
order here. During the conversation I
found out that he claimed to be trav.
cling for firm of same name, but
different initials of the well-known,
reputable firm, and his house was To-
Gated in different city, or claimed
to be located there. I firmly be-
leve he was travelling for himself,
gets job Lots Of trees and plants for a
song, and will never show his face
more than one or two seasons in
same section. Here is another
wrinkle for catching the unwary
farmer.
AS we hear about dry farming, and
irrigation farming, and new plant
life that is specially adapted to grow
where nothing else will, one begins
to wonder if, after all, there is any
kind of soil that is not adapted to
some kind Of crop To-day there are
millions of acres of land producing
paying crops which few years ago
were barren wastes. 1t would take
many a big volume to tell the story
of what scientific research has done
for farming in the last decade. All
this brings a practical suggestion to
every farmer, and that there may be
no condition SO unpromising but that
it may be overcome by study and ex-
perimentation. Talk about the arid
wastes of the west, why, in the az
gregate there is enough so-called
waste land upon the farms throughout
the most favored agricultural Sec
tions to build state, we were
going to say. Nearly every farmer
has some patch Of ground which he
considers good for nothing, and upon
which he spends no time or thought
or effort. But the lesson which the
scientist is teaching the farmer is
that almost any patch of ground is
good for something. Join the ranks
of the Investigating, progressive farm
er, study the conditions of that waste
bit of~land, experiment to find what
can best be done with it. Let no rod
of your acreage go unimproved. Make
every inch of the farm pay.
An order issued by the fourth as
sistant postmaster general \provides
that boxes on rural free delivery
routes shall be numbered consecutive
ly for public con venience and to facil-
itate a more accurate handling of mail
by the rural carriers. This will be
equivalent to numbering the farm
houses along the highways. Under
this system mail matter will be adj
dressed to "No. -, Route -,
Caseyville." Numbers assigned to
boxes on each route will begin with
No. 1, which will pertain to the first
regulation box reached by the carrier
after leaving the starting point of his
route, travelling in accordance with
official description; box after box
thereafter to be counted and have the
PROPER number in regular sequence in
including all those boxes entitled to
service on the route. Each number
thus arrived at will be recorded in
the carriers roster book opposite the
name of the owner of the box so des-
ignated and also opposite the name of
every person entitled to receive mail
in the same box.
The cricket as a frost Indicator is
the latest discovery of scientists. 1t
is asserted that the shrill fiddling of
these evening choristers falls into a
rhythmic beat, if noted, and forms an
accurate index of the temperature. In
the northern latitude of the country
the crickets chirp about so times a
minute when the temperature is at so
degrees. They add four chirps a min
ute or abstract that many for every
degree above or below that point In
latitudes where the number of chirps
to the minute is found to vary, the
same ratio of increase or decrease is
said to be inevitable and may be
banked upon.