1332 
TShe  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
Drain  Tile  Under  Road 
The  picture  herewith  shows  a  plan  on 
a  farm  in  Western  New  York  for  utiliz¬ 
ing  the  lane  or  road  as  a  place  for  the 
tile.  The  ditch  is  dug  right  where  the 
roadway  is  to  run,  and  the  tile  are  laid 
so  that,  when  the  dirt  is-  thrown  back  the 
line  will  run  directly  under  the  center  of 
this  road.  This  happens  to  be  the  best 
place  for  the  line  of  tile,  which  is  out  of 
the  way  for  the  crops,  and  will  take  away 
the  water  in  the  best  manner.  It  might 
he  said  that  tile  laid  in  such  a  situation 
would  not  work  properly,  since  the  water 
could  not  get  down  rapidly  through  the 
hard  roadbed.  The  truth  is  that  most  of 
2.  The  weight  for  a  bushel  of  onions 
for  Indiana  is  given  as  -IS  lbs.  I  do  not 
understand  why  this  should  be  when 
many  other  States  including  Illinois, 
your  neighboring  State,  set  it  at  57  lbs.; 
Ohio  at  55:  Michigan  at  54;  the  Da¬ 
kotas  and  Massachusetts  at  52  lbs. 
K.  W,  DE  RAV.W 
Storing  of  Sweet  Potatoes 
I  have  been  successful  iu  raising 
sweet  potatoes  this  year,  and  my  prob¬ 
lem  now  is  to  provide  some  storage  for 
them.  About  the  easiest  way  and  most 
convenient  method  for  me  to  try  would 
be  to  store  them  under  our  bouse.  Our 
house  is  about  three  feet  or  more  from 
The  Drain  at  the  Bottom  ot  a  Roadbed 
the  water  which  runs  away  through  a 
tile  drain  does  not  soak  down  from  the 
top  of  the  soil,  but  works  in  from  the 
bottom  and  sides,  through  pressure  from 
the  water  in  the  soil.  Thus  in  this  way 
tbe  water  can  run  away  freely,  and  the 
drain  tile  does  not  interfere  with  the 
road  bed ;  in  fact,  it  is  an  improvement, 
as  it  takes  water  away  from  the  road  and 
will  thus  leave  a  drier  and  firmer  soil. 
Storing  Onions 
1.  What  is  the  best  way  to  keep  large 
onions  through  the  Winter?  2.  What  is 
the  standard  weight  of  onions  per  bushel 
iu  Indiana?  J.  x. 
Atherton.  Ind. 
1.  The  most  essential  point  iu  the  keep¬ 
ing  quality  of  onions  is  to  pull  them  just 
as  soon  us  they  have  obtained  their 
growth.  Do  not  wait  for  all  the  tops 
to  go  down.  To  do  so  would  give  the 
onion  an  opportunity  to  Start  a  fresh 
set  of  roots.  This  starts  the  heart  and 
the  keeping  quality  of  the  onion  is  im¬ 
paired.  The  old  practice  of  allowing 
the  pulled  onions  to  lie  spread  out  iu  the 
field  to  cute  for  several  days  is  being 
superseded.  Now  the  onions  are  pulled, 
topped  and  dried  in  a  day  or  two,  and 
placed  under  shelter  in  such  a  way  that 
air  has  free  aceess  to  every  onion.  Reg¬ 
ular  onion  growers  have  on  hau  l  great 
quantities  of  onion  trays.  These  are 
usually  four  feet  long,  three  feet  wide 
and  four  inches  deep,  with  inch  thick 
strips  about  a  foot  long  nailed  diagonally 
across  each  corner.  Thus  the  crates  may 
be  stacked  upon  one  another  while  the 
air  has  free  aceess.  The  bottoms  of  these 
crates  are  made  of  mason  lath  nailed  a 
quarter  of  an  inch  apart  to  facilitate 
ventilation.  If  onion  trays  are  not  avail¬ 
able  the  onions  may  be  spread  four  inches 
thick  on  any  floor.  The  corncrib  ruay 
be  used  to  excellent  advantage.  Tempor¬ 
ary  shelving  or  floors  one  foot  above  the 
other  would  increase  the  storage  capacity 
of  tin'  corncrib.  The  slatted  crate  in 
which  onions  are  shipped,  or  tomato,  or 
strawberry  crates,  may  be  used  by  lilliug 
them  only  half  full  and  stacking  them 
under  shelter.  Onions  piled  in  bulk 
quickly  beat  or  become  musty.  The 
“skins”  stick  to  them,  giving  them  a 
smudgy  appearance  rather  than  a  clean 
bright  look.  When  the  cold  weather 
comes  usually  just  after  Thanksgiving 
the  cured  onions  may  be  stored  in  ham¬ 
pers,  crates  or  slat  barrels  away  from 
Severe  freezing.  A  cold  dry  even  temper¬ 
ature  is  most  desirable.  Onions  grown 
from  sets  seldom  keep  as  well  as  those 
grown  from  seed,  then1  fore  these  should 
he  disposed  of  first. 
■  the  ground,  and  is  rather  dry  under¬ 
neath  which  makes  an-  believe  that  it 
would  be  a  very  good  place  for  storage. 
My  plan  is  to  close  in  the  space  I  in¬ 
tend  for  storage  with  board  and  then  on 
the  outside  of  this  tack  heavy  paper,  and 
on  the  ground  1  intend  to  lay  dry  sand 
about  two  or  three  inches  deep,  and  on 
top  of  this  place  cottonseed  hulls,  which 
are  very  easy  to  obtain  here,  and  which 
I  am  told  is  excellent  for  sweet  potatoes 
in  storage.  The  amount  I  intend  for 
storage  will  lie  about  800  bushels,  I 
suppose,  but  I  shall  push  the  sale  of 
them  right  along,  and  by  the  last  of  No¬ 
vember  expect  to  be  cleaned  out. 
Memphis,  Tenu.  n.  b. 
For  keeping  sweet  potatoes  iu  any 
large  quantity  it  is  far  better  to  con¬ 
struct  a  cheap  curing  house  with  heating 
apparatus*.  The  critical  stage  in  the 
keeping  of  the  potatoes  is  when  they  are 
first  stored,  and  are  parting  with  the 
surplus  moisture,  or  sweating  as  it  is 
called,  A  chill  at  this  time  will  be  cer¬ 
tain  to  Start  them  to  decaying.  At  this 
stage  a  high  temperature  and  abundant 
ventilation  is  needed,  while  after  being 
well  dried  off  they  are  easily  kept  where 
the  temperature  does  not  go  below  45  to 
50  degrees.  Another  important  point  is 
the  handling  of  the  potatoes  in  digging. 
If  l hey  are  carelessly  thrown  iu  heaps 
and  handled  roughly  iu  storing  they  will 
be  sure  to  rot  if  skiuned.  No  cut  po¬ 
tatoes  should  be  stored,  and  the  best  way 
to  store  them  is  to  put  them  in  slatted 
crates  iu  the  field,  and  store  them  in 
these  without  further  handling.  The 
space  under  your  house  might  be  util¬ 
ized  if  you  build  a  tight  wall  around  it 
with  a  dead-air  space  between  two 
sheathings,  cover  with  building  paper, 
and  have  a  double  window;  that  is,  a 
glazed  window  with  a  tight  batten  shut¬ 
ter.  so  that  it  can  be  opened  for  ven¬ 
tilation  and  closed  against  cold.  Then 
you  can  set  a  kerosene  stove  in  it,  and 
after  the  potatoes  are  in  run  the  temper¬ 
ature  up  to  SG  or  PO  degrees  with  the 
window  open,  until  the  potatoes  have 
dried  off  from  the  sweat,  which  may  take 
a  week.  After  that  you  can  maintain 
in  your  climate  a  temperature  of  50  de¬ 
grees  and  not  higher  by  manipulating  the 
window.  Or  you  can  store  them  outdoors 
under  a  rough  shed,  by  putting  down  a 
thick  layer  of  cotton  seed  bulls  and  then 
covering  them  in  conical  heaps  or  25 
bushels  with  a  thick  layer  of  cotton  seed 
bulls,  and  let  them  remain  sheltered 
from  rain  till  they  have  sweated.  Cover 
the  heaps  with  six  inches  of  soil,  and  if 
sound  and  healthy  roots  are  stored,  they 
will  generally  keep  fairly  well  in  the 
South  in  this  way,  but  the  percentage  of 
decay  will  he  far  greater  than  in  a  cur¬ 
ing  house  with  artificial  heat.  Growing 
October  21,  1916. 
1  hem  largely  it -will  be  far  better  to  build 
a  regular  curing  house  with  dead-air 
space  in  walls  and  doors,  and  with  lower 
and  upper  ventilation  that  can  be  opened 
or  closed,  and  heating  apparatus  for  the 
curing.  Our  large  growers  here  have 
these  houses  heated  either  by  furnace 
and  flue  or  hot-water  pipes,  and  we  have 
the  potatoes  all  the  year  round. 
W.  F.  MASSEY. 
PLANT  NUT  TREES 
REED’S 
GRAFTED,  HARDY 
NORTHERN  PECANS 
and  ENGLISH  WALNUTS 
Grafted  on  Black  Walnut  are  Reliable 
Beautiful  Shade  Trees,  Prolific  Bearers 
24  Page  Illustrated  Special  Nut  Catalogue 
on  request.  Latest  Information.  Pioneers 
in  Nut  Growing.  Endorsed  by  Leading 
Experiment  Stations  and  Department  of 
Agriculture-  (Established  1891) 
VINCENNES  NURSERIES,  Drawer  299,  Vincennes,  Indiana,  U.S.A. 
What  Causes  Potato  Scab  ? 
Why  tire  potatoes  planted  in  now 
ground  with  sheep  tnantm-  covered  with 
scab?  I  find  the  same  thing  has  hap¬ 
pened  with  chicken  manure  and  phos¬ 
phate  fertilizer.  What  can  I  do  to  pre¬ 
vent  this  another  year?  T.  D.  IT. 
Antrim,  N.  II. 
Potato  scab  is  a  skin  disease  which  de¬ 
velops  from  a  germ.  The  disease  will  not 
develop  on  the  tubers  unless  this  germ  is 
present.  It  nmy  be  iu  the  soil  or  on  the 
seed  when  planted.  The  germ  develops 
slowly  in  an  acid  soil,  but  very  much 
faster  when  the  soil  is  sweet  or  alkaline. 
Sheep  or  poultry  manure  contains  con¬ 
siderable  ammonia  and  this  gives  a  ren¬ 
dition  favorable  to  the  scab  germs.  Prob¬ 
ably  tl'.e  seed  which  you  used  was  scabby, 
and  the  sheep  manure  encouraged  the 
spread  of  the  disease.  You  should  “treat" 
tin-  seed  potatoes.  This  means  soaking 
them  in  some  solution  which  will  destroy 
the  scab  germs  and  still  do  no  injury  to 
the  seed.  This  may  be  done  by  soaking 
the  seed  potatoes  for  PO  minutes  in  a 
solution  of  one  pint  of  formalin  in  50 
gallons  of  water.  Then  the  seed  potatoes 
are  dried  and  cut  as  usual.  We  think  it 
pays  to  dust  the  seed  pieces  with  pow¬ 
dered  sulphur  in  addition  to  this  shak¬ 
ing. 
the  biacina  wit  n:r  of  the  Allanlic  Co»*t  by  expcrti  bred  to 
the  biaiiK-w.  Every  tree  guaranteed  genuine  Harrison- 
srown.  A.1  stock  is  true  to  name  and 
thoroughly  inspected.  Skip  by  freight. 
irfyfvS  express  or  parcel  pout.  Large  or  small 
AST  ISsA,  SprX  orders.  Over  25  years  in  business. 
( *  a  Planting  time  is  at  hand,  write  today 
V.A  • ;  AxNgjy  for  catalog  and  special  prices. 
%  Harrison#*  Nurseries 
Box  14,  Berlin,  Mcb 
2Muntmor<ncy  It  Early  lOLmond  <!hi«rry,  1  York 
Flute  Prune.  1  IU*iiut  Cwutiv  Plum,  1  Bartlett,  1 
Anjou  Prar,  X  Mrlnfonh,  I  Grinno’o Golden  Apple.  1 
firangi:  Oimttc.  I  Eli-cria  Prach.  12  (trot- class 
4-&  ft.  U»<a«  for  PMr ,  W*nr«*  I  ho  lnr«,e<ifc  Nurseries 
in.  New  York-  F*  II  A  No.  i  slock  at  the  right 
I»rice8,  Write  for  free  Wb  N  r  Die  IftinlutfUO. 
Rntahlinhrfl  ,Y.’  i/fiirn 
MALONEY  CROS.&  WELLS  CO. 
31  Main  Street,  Dansvllle,  N.  Y, 
Dnnsvflle  ‘s  Pioneer  Wholesale  Nurseries. 
A  catalogue  of  the  leading  fruit  trees.  Contains  cultural  di¬ 
rections  and  lists  of  Apples.  Pears.  Peaches,  Plums.  Cherries 
and  other  fmlts.  Equally  valuable  for  the  home  planter  or  the 
commercial  grower.  Send  today  for  a  free  copy, 
SAMUEL  FRASER  NURSERY  I*-.,  1?6  MrinSt..  Ccnesco.  N.Y. 
Substitute  for  Grass 
The  clover  and  Timothy  seed  I  sowed 
last  Spring  failed  to  come,  too  dry. 
What  am  I  to  do  for  hay?  What  will  it 
be  beat  to  plant,  for  clover  cannot  be 
sown  this  year  now.  c.  A.  w. 
Troy,  O. 
In  our  own  case,  if  the  grass  and  clo¬ 
ver  had  failed  we  should  work  up  part 
of  the  ground  now,  and  seed  either  rye 
or  wheat  to  be  cut  iu  the  Spring,  either 
for  fodder  or  buy.  The  wheat  will  make 
a  very  much  better  fodder  than  the  rye. 
The  rest  of  tin-  ground  we  should  plow 
in  the  Spring  and  seed  to  Canada  peas 
and  oats,  seeding  a  mixture  of  Red  and 
Alsike  clover  with  this  crop.  In  a  moist 
season  we  will  get  a  good  crop  of  fod¬ 
der  from  the.  oats  and  peas  ami  a  fair 
stand  of  clover  to  follow  on.  Oats  and 
peas  make  a  hay  which  when  well  cured 
is  about  as  good  as  that  from  clover. 
Peach,  Apple,  Pear,  SbadeTrees,  Etc.~^"7n,rer 
small fruli  eluuts  iliiout  1  in  t> -- ,*  r-vtoyim.  Satisfaction 
Onaiaut-  ed-  Cat, f l  t-C.  G.t  BUNTING  S  SON.  Bo«5.  Selbrvitle.Del. 
Big  .liop  in  prices.  Buy  now  from  us.  Also 
millions  of  crei-s,  Mrnbs  and  plants.  New  price 
list  mid  cum  log  ready. 
THE  WESTMINSTER  NURSERY.  Box  129.  Wtximinsler.  Md. 
SAVE  YOUR  TREES 
Order  your  Protectors  now  at  save 
your  young  Fruit  Trees  from  being  de¬ 
stroyed  by  Rabbits  and  Mice  during  the 
Winter,  Call’s  Nurseries,  Perry,  O..  can 
furnish  you  the  best.  Tree  Protector  made 
for  less  than  one  cent  each. 
Solves  Fruit  Growing  Problems  fk^t  grower 
fully  explains  orchard  planting,  spraying,  tillage, 
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months  trial  Subscription.  Address  AMERICAN 
FRUIT-GROWER.  Box  321.  Charlottesville.  Va. 
SEED  POTATOES  V/ffikT,TNsV?: 
Nice,  clean  stock;  free  from  sl,s-;i*e;  trim  to  type. 
We  have  i  i&uflb-ieiir.  so m'  e,  f->  <  R>  r  tlmm  a>  SI. GO 
mnv,  f.  o.  b.  lime.  W.  Ji.  Dunlop,  Fayetteville,  N.  Y. 
Rye  as  a  Cover  Crop 
I  am  trying  with  very  poor  success 
thus  far,  your  plan  of  cover  crops  iu 
corn,  ns  we  have  not  solved  its  applica¬ 
tion  to  our  soil,  but  I  think  we  will  got 
it  pretty  soon.  Have  you  had  any  com¬ 
plaint  of  rye  getting  loo  big  a  growth 
when  planted  in  silage  corn,  so  as  to  in¬ 
terfere  with  cutting  the  corn  with  the 
harvester?  Or  would  the  rye  be  too  big 
under  favorable  conditions  of  growth  to 
make  it  ties’  ruble  in  the  silo?  u.  E.  D. 
Central  New  Jersey. 
We  have  never  hud  any  complaint  thus 
far  that  the  rye  grew  too  fast  in  the  Fall 
so  as  to  interfere  with  the  harvester.  If 
anyone  has  had  such  trouble,  we  would 
like  to  hear  the  facts,  and  know  if  pos¬ 
sible  when  such  rye  was  seeded.  With  us 
the  last  cultivation  comes  at  the  middle 
or  latter  part  of  August,  and  then  the  r.ve 
is  seeded  in  the  corn.  It  does  not  usually 
make  very  much  growth  above  ground 
in  the  shade,  of  the  corn  until  the  crop 
has  been  cut,  but  it  makes  a  very  heavy 
growth  below  ground.  Generally  speak¬ 
ing,  1  here  would  nut  be  time  enough  be¬ 
tween  seeding  the  rye  and  harvesting  the 
crop  to  enable  the  rye  to  make  too  much 
growth.  At  any  rate  the  rye  cut  in  with 
the  corn  would  not  injure  the  silage. 
BERRY  PLANTS  and  FRUIT  TREES Sy 
ni.icbbcriy,  Simwbei  ty,  A- pa  a- u«,  Letiu<<*  Plants: 
Fruit  and  Ornamentnt  Trees,  f  t-  f  11  plnntlzur.  Pi  i-s-e  rea- 
himublo.  CuialugUO  free.  HARRY  L SQUIRES.  Good  Ground,  N.  Y. 
APPLE  BARRELS 
ounhly  seasoned  stock.  Robt.  Gillies,  Medina,  N.Y. 
DANDELION  ROOTS  fciWM!?: 
Elut-amjiane  Roots  wanted.  J.  1.  GLEED 
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Cement  Drain  Tile  for  New  England 
I  have  quite  ail  area  of  land  to  drain 
in  Southern  Masaolinsetts.  There  hap¬ 
pens  to  be  a  plentiful  supply  of  sharp 
sand  and  small  gravel  on  the  place.  Can 
you  inform  me  as  to  the  possibility  of 
making  the  drain  pipe  of  cement  on  the 
farm,  and  as  t* »  the  probable  exueuse  iu 
Comparison  with  the  cost  of  tile  pipe? 
Massachusetts.  II.  S.  B. 
Wc  cannot  give  the  information  from 
experience,  so  we  want  to  hour  from 
those  who  have  used  such  tile.  Opinion 
seems  to  be  that  iu  most  parts  of  New 
England  the  cement  tile  would  be  cheaper 
than  clay,  and  just  about  as  durable. 
Who  can  tell? 
ill  1  "°'ls •  I*'fy  senl  a*  rewards  only  (in  1 
JI  place  ol  cash.) to  onr  subscribers  and  friends  § 
\  MWj  who,  acting  as  agents,  send  as  subscriptions  1 
as  indicated. 
|  THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER  SWkoty  I 
s  r 
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