226 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
MARCH 2i 
Soaking Shingles. 
S. A. B., No. Blandford, Mass —In re¬ 
ply toH. G. M. In Thk Rural of February 
21, relative to saturating shingles, allow me 
to give him my experience. In 1866 I 
shingled a barn with sawed hemlock, hav¬ 
ing first boiled the shingles in gas tar. I 
made a pan of sheet-iron in the form of the 
original sap pan first used in this section, 
by using planks for the sides and turning 
up the iron to form the ends. This was of 
sufficient capacity to hold 1,000 shingles 
with the tar in which they were to be 
boiled. The pan having been raised with 
stones placed under the sides, and banked 
with earth, it required but little heat to 
keep the tar at the boiling point. Care 
must be taken that the heat is not sufficient 
to make it run over and ignite The 
shingles should be boiled until they are 
well saturated : the time required will de¬ 
pend upon the amount of sap in them, as 
the tar will not penetrate until the sap is 
expelled. When well saturated they 
should be drained well and thrown into 
dry sand where they can lie until ready for 
use. After my shingles had been laid 16 
years the roof was examined by an expert 
who gave it as his opinion that they had 
been laid four or five years, and now after 
nearly 25 years of wear they have every ap¬ 
pearance of lasting as many more. My 
house has been covered about 15 years with 
shingles prepared in the same way. Were I 
to cover another building I should try gas 
tar and crude petroleum mixed, for satu¬ 
rating the shingles. 
That Sweet Apple Question. 
E. C. Boyd, Windham County, Vt.— 
When I read The Rural’s advice “not to 
plant any early or sweet apple trees,” I 
said to myselt, “The Rural is generally 
right, but I can’t indorse that doctrine.” I 
raise Yellow Transparent, Red Astrachan 
and Tetofsky for summer use, so that I 
have apples two months before the Porter 
is ripe. For sweet apples I have Sweet 
Bough, Pound Sweet and Talman Sweet, 
besides several good seedlings. Last year 
summer and fall apples were plentiful 
here, while winter apples were nearly a 
failure; but by canning and drying our 
early ones I have enough for a year or 
more besides selling several barrels. As 
to sweet apples, we are all very fond of 
them either raw, baked or made into sauce 
with boiled cider. How could The Rural 
have forgotten the “ boiled cider apple 
sauce” that its grandmother used to make? 
And, by the way, one may enjoy that 
luxury on his table every day in the year 
by canning a sufficient quantity. 
Lima Bean Experience. 
E. E. S., Niagara County, N. Y.—Last 
summer in my Lima bean plantation I 
had some Lima beans which acted almost 
exactly in the same way as those men¬ 
tioned by J. J. W., page 165. I think I 
know what the trouble was. The ground 
was very carefully prepared and marked 
out into rows, in which I planted the beans 
about a foot apart, as I grew them on 
trellises instead of poles. On one of the 
rows I decided to experiment with com¬ 
mercial fertilizers and so marked it off 
into 16-foot lengths, and applied a certain 
brand of complete potato manure in vary¬ 
ing quantities on the surface after plant¬ 
ing. On the same day I prepared this row, 
I planted another alongside with only a 
light dressing of the manure, my soil being 
naturally a strong chestnut on clay subsoil. 
The seed all seemed to break the ground 
about the same time after planting; but on 
the spaces where the fertilizers were used 
the heaviest, as soon as the beans spread 
open, the shoots died, and for a couple of 
weeks the plants seemed to stand still, but 
the stems were strong and robust; at 
length I noticed shoots starting out from 
the sides and they made a very rapid 
growth, so very fast in fact, that they 
caught up with the row alongside, but the 
latter bore beans ready for picking the 
soonest. 
It was here apparent that the fertilizer 
was the cause of this trouble, so far as 
making the beans mature later; but the 
fact of the side shoots growing up did not 
seem to affect the productiveness of the 
vines as on other rows: where the main 
shoots continued to grow there was only a 
medium crop, which I attributed to the 
peculiar season—a wet spring and a 
droughty summer. The seed I knew to be 
first-class. I have noticed, however, in 
past seasons that where the vines grew too 
thick or were stunted by a weedy growth, 
the yield of beans was seriously affected, 
not so much as a result of late growth as 
of the poor setting of the flowers. 
More About Tomato Blight. 
W. S. Coburn, Delta County, Col — 
N. H., Lewiston, Idaho, on page 145 of The 
R. N.-Y., speaks of tomato blight. I was 
troubled with it nine years ago when this 
country was first settled. At first I 
thought the vines needed irrigation ; but 
when water did no good, I pulled some up 
to see if grubs had not attacked the roots. 
These were found all sound. Then I ex¬ 
amined with a double-lens ore glass the 
leaves, branches and at last the stock, 
which I found covered, just above the 
ground, with minute insects resembling 
Buffalo gnats, which had caused swellings 
or warty formations on the stock. After 
several unsuccessful attempts to get rid of 
the pests I hit upon the following method 
with the best success. I sprinkled ashes 
around each plant and sprayed with strong 
soap-suds; old-fashioned soft soap is best, 
and if it is milk warm it will take im¬ 
mediate effect. This not only kills the in¬ 
sects but fertilizes the vine, giving it a 
rank, dark green appearance. 
Stick to Tested Fruits. 
F. Grundy, Christian Co., III.—The 
Rural is right in advising people of lim¬ 
ited mean swho are setting out fruits, either 
for their own use or market, to stick to the 
well-known and cheaper varieties. Fancy, 
high-priced sorts are well enough to ex¬ 
periment with, but for real business the 
old, well-tested varieties are emphatically 
the best. The person who pays one dollar 
for a dozen plants of Somebody’s Scarlet 
Sugar Waxen Marvel Strawberry when he 
can get a hundred Crescents or Warfields 
for the same amount, is on the highway to 
bankruptcy and fervid wrath, unless he is 
well supplied with reserve funds and the 
milk of human kindness, or is growing 
plants for sale. The beginner who is after 
plain, eatdble fruit will get fifty times more 
berries and a hundred times more satis¬ 
faction from one dollar’s worth of a well- 
known reliable variety than from $10 worth 
of an astonishing name. The fantastic fan¬ 
cies of many a promising young fruit grower 
have been rudely nipped off short by the 
failure of a “ remarkably large, prolific 
and deliciously luscious” new variety to 
come within 40 miles of his expectations. 
I know several persons who invested 
their hard earned dollars in Waxen Jum¬ 
bos and Sugar Plum Beauties instead of 
buying the old, reliable varieties when 
they first set out to grow their own straw¬ 
berries, and the natural results were fail¬ 
ure, bitterness and gall, and several ex¬ 
strawberry growers. I know others who 
started in with 50 cents’ worth of some 
tough, hardy, rampant variety that would 
grow and make berries, even under the 
most adverse conditions, and with the 
wickedest sort of culture, and these would 
now as soon think of going without bread 
as without their annual feast of strawber¬ 
ries. 
A hardy, vigorous strawberry like the 
Crescent, will teach any person possessed of 
a grain of sense how to grow it. In the 
middle of the rows, where the plants stand 
as fhick as grass in a meadow, the berries 
will bs few and small; while on the out¬ 
side, and even where the plants happen to 
stand thin on the ground, the berries will 
be numerous, large and luscious. This 
gives the greeny a hint. If the plants are 
thinned out so they will stand six or eight 
inches apart, all the berries will be large 
and there will be lots of them. It is done, 
and the result proves the wisdom of his 
reasoning. Thereafter he never fails to 
have strawberries in their season. 
Early Planting and Good Potatoes. 
G. E. P., Nunda, N. Y.—In the latter 
part of April ’90 I planted early varieties of 
potatoes. As the ground was in fine con- 
condition I determined to try some late 
varieties, by way of experiment, being ad¬ 
vised by some growers of experience not to 
plant too early. The wet weather soon be¬ 
gan, and continued in this section, delay¬ 
ing planting until June. The first planted 
were cultivated once or twice, Both pieces 
received the same care and culture while 
growing. Seeds taken from the same 
pile were used on both pieces which were 
about 50 rods apart on the same farm. 
Result: both kinds of the first planting 
were matured by or before September 1. 
About September 15, blight and, soon after¬ 
ward, frosts prevented the late planted from 
maturing. The potatoes produced from 
the same seeds are as unlike in appearance 
and value as two different kinds could pos¬ 
sibly be. Those from the first planting 
cook dry and mealy; while those from the 
second are wet and soggy and almost unfit 
for use. This early crop was the only one 
that matured in this section. Blight and 
frost killed the vines but did not mature 
the potatoes. I feel assured that could the 
numerous readers of The Rural see the 
potatoes (White Star) as they are in the 
bins, they would be inclined to take the 
chances of success by planting earlier than 
most are accustomed to plant. 
A Woman’s Idea of Wills. 
“ Aunt Rachel,” Wisconsin.— It is all 
right that a man should have his will 
made, as a correspondent suggested a few 
weeks ago; and if he neglects to do that he 
ought to have his business in such a shape 
that if he should suddenly die, his estate 
would not suffer because his affairs were 
in confusion. Experience shows that there 
is a class of natural sharpers in every com¬ 
munity who stand ready to make some¬ 
thing out of every man’s property after his 
decease, if there is any opening. If a man 
is out of debt and has a receipt in full from 
every dishonest man he has dealt with, his 
estate is tolerably safe. 
It is often the case that a man wills a 
liberal amount to his wife as long as she 
remains his widow, and this course is 
usually criticised by outsiders; but why is 
it not a good thing ? It acts as a protec¬ 
tion to her against fortune hunters; the 
will may not have been made for that rea¬ 
son, but it looks to me like a justifiable 
provision. If a woman is left with a good 
income, how many despicable frauds there 
are who are anxious to help her take care 
of it. If a man knows that a widow’s in¬ 
come ceases when she remarries, he will 
only seek her from regard and not from in¬ 
terested motives. 
I once heard a good man say, “ If I 
should die I should like to have my wife 
have the benefit of a part of my property 
as long as she lived; but I would like to fix 
it so that no other man could get it away 
from her.” Is not this a natural and proper 
feeling ? Who would wish to accumulate 
wealth for any but his own family ? 
The feeling which leads a man to provide 
generously for his wife in case of his death, 
is one which every true woman fully appre¬ 
ciate, but I do not believe it is always kind¬ 
ness to them to give them all. Many busi¬ 
ness women in their best days, would 
wisely and honorably manage an estate 
left to them; but where there is one who 
could be safely trusted to do this, there are 
a hundred who would not know how, if 
they were ever so well disposed, and as the 
infirmities of age came upon them they 
would be unduly influenced by those of 
their children who were nearest to them 
and act unjustly towards some of the 
others. It is better to make a reasonable 
will and remember all the heirs kindly 
and justly, by name, and then stick to that 
than to go to extremes, even when in- 
fluencd by a chivalrous affection. 
(Continued on next page.) 
lUisxeUnnmtsi gUmtising. 
In writing to advertisers please always 
mention The Rural. 
March 
April May 
Are the months in 
Which to Purify 
Your Blood. Take 
Hood’s 
Sarsaparilla 
For Internal and External Use. 
Stops Pain, Cramps, Inflammation in body or limb, 
like magic. Cures Croup, Asthma, Colds, Catarrh, Chol¬ 
era Morbus, Diarrhoea, Rheumatism, Neuralgia, lame- 
back, Stiff Joints and Strains. Full particulars free. Price 
35 cts. post-paid. I. S. JOHNSON & CO., Boston, Mass. 
For a Disordered Liver 
Try BEECHAM’S PILLS. 
25cts. a Box. 
OF AJLL OLtTJGrG-ISTS. 
S D’ye see those 
skates ? The Pitts¬ 
burgh lamp is 
ahead. It gives 
magnificent light. 
It is easy to 
care for. 
It keeps itself clean—all 
but wiping. 
Send for a primer—can’t 
tell it all here. 
Pittsburgh, Pa. PITTSBURGH BRASS Co. 
NEW KODAKS 
THE EASTMAN CONIPANV, ROCHESTEH, H 
Send for Catalogue. 
WILLIS 
ySAP SPOUT 
W . . in one piece with hook. Hand. 
■I I lectin use and will obtain more sap than any 
■SI I other. Send for circularof maplesugar goods 
CHAS. MILLAR & SON, UTICA, N.Y. 
Also Manufacturers of Cheese and Butter Making Apparatus. 
FENCING 
Woven Wire 
^WIRE ROPE SELVAGE the BEST. 
PRICES REDUCED. Sold by dealers. FREIGHT PAID. 
MeMlTLLEN’H POULTKYNETTING. Ncwthlng. 
No sagging! No bagging! Extra Heavy Selvage. 
The McMullen Woven Wire Fence Co.. Chicago. JuL 
MAKE 
Light Draft! 
1 KEYSTONE ” 
^ . n trouble and ex- 
pense. The 
“ Keystone ” Disc Harrow draws nearly 
one horse lighter than any other, farmers 
tell us. It does not require weighting 
down with iron, dirt or stone, which also 
makes it lighter draft. It is not a “ stone 
boat,” it is a Disc Harrow 
Send for Catalogue. 
KEYSTONE M’F’G GO., STERLING, ILL 
Branch Houses conveniently located. 
(Mention this paper.) 
A fade in 
10, 12,14, 16 J|g|| 
and 18 inch 
cut Most /?e-^|Nx 
liable Mower 
use. Easy to work,™ 
Strong and Durable. 
Also Manufacturers of the Buckeye Hone Reel 
and Lawn Sprinkler. Iron Turbine Wind En- 
f ines. Buckeye Force I’umpu and Buckeye 
ron Fencing. Send for Illustrated Circulars to 
MAST, FOOS &. CO., SPRINCFIELD, O. 
