1899 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
497 
Farmers’ Club. 
[Every query must be accompanied by the 
name and address of the writer to insure atten¬ 
tion. Before asking a question, please see 
whether it is not answered in our advertising 
columns Ask only a few questions at one time. 
Put questions on a separate piece of paper.] 
Cattle Turnips; Hard Water. 
A. U., Wcedsport, N. Y. —1. What is the best 
kind of turnips for cattle feed that I can 
raise by sowing broadcast among corn or 
potatoes? 2. Our cistern has been plastered 
inside lately with Portland cement and 
sand, and the water is very hard. Can I 
use anything to soften the water? 
Ans. —1. For stock, some variety of 
the strap-leaved turnip should be used. 
There are several varieties, and a mix¬ 
ture would, probably, be most satisfac¬ 
tory. 2. For making the cistern water 
soft, some form of potash may be used. 
There can be purchased at the drug 
stores potash or lye put up in form for 
household use. After a time, the water 
in the cistern will cease to be hard, but 
this will take place only when the water 
will dissolve no more lime from the cis¬ 
tern walls. 
Salt on Clover. 
C. F. M., Freeburg, Pa .—I have destroyed 
several vines of the morning-glory which 
appeared on potato ground, by putting salt 
at the roots. Will it have the same effect 
if I scatter salt broadcast over a clover 
field in which the morning-glories are 
plentiful? If so, will such a process destroy 
the clover? 
Ans. —If salt is scattered broadcast 
over a clover field in sufficient quanti¬ 
ties to destroy the morning-glories, it 
will be likely to destroy the clover as 
well. To verify the truth of the above 
statement, C. F. M. should scatter salt 
over a very small plot of the clover, and 
see what the result is. l. a. c. 
The Coxcomb Elm Gall. ><, 
M. S. IP., Handy Hill, N. y. —I inclose elm 
leaves which, with many others, have an 
enlargement or puckered appearance, on the 
upper surface. What is it, and will it do 
any great damage? 
Ans. —The elm leaves submitted for 
examination with the above inquiry 
were nearly covered with a peculiar 
gall, which attracts attention from year 
to year on account of its shape and large 
size. The individual galls are about 
half an inch long, usually parallel to the 
veins of the leaf, and, enlarging from a 
narrow base, taper to a comb-like crest, 
hence their popular name. The younger 
galls are green, later they become red¬ 
dish on the tips, and late in the season, 
are nearly black. When abundant, the 
leaves are badly distorted and twisted. 
If one of the galls is opened, it will be 
found inhabited by bluish gray plant 
lice, which are the authors of the dis¬ 
torted growths. Within these retreats, 
they are safe from insecticides, and as 
they rarely do much injury to a tree, 
there is little use of fighting them. 
e. p. FELT. 
N. Y. State Entomologist. 
Value of Beardless Barley. 
J. M. C., Madison, Ind .—Is the so-called 
beardless barley good for anything? Is 
there a good'Fall beardless barley? 
Ans. —I have experimented somewhat 
largely with beardless barley in this 
State and in Minnesota. As you are 
aware, there is an awnless barley in 
which the glumes are adherent, as in 
the common barley, but on which the 
awns are abortive or but small and re¬ 
curved. There is still another sort, also 
without awns, and at the same time 
without adherent glumes; this variety 
is called the Black or the Hulless bar¬ 
ley. This latter variety is used in the 
arid regions for hay, for very evident 
reasons. I am very sorry to report that 
we have not attained very good success 
with either of these modified forms of 
barley. The yield has not been large in 
this climate, although good success is 
reported both from California and Ari¬ 
zona on the one hand, and South Dakota 
on the other. No one should grow large 
areas of either variety without first ex¬ 
perimenting in a small way. 
Mich. Ag. College. 
Derrick for Stacking Clover. 
F. E. M„ Auburn, N. Y .—In The R. N.-Y., 
page 430, Mr. Jamison describes a hay der¬ 
rick. I would like to have him explain 
where he attaches the rope, how he turns 
the pole, and what with—by hand or horse. 
Ans. —There is a pulley attached at 
each end of the arm across the top of 
the pole, and another at a convenient 
point on the frame at the bottom; but 
it should be where the horse, in pulling 
up the load, will not be in the way of 
the rake bringing in the hay. See Fig. 
197. If these pulleys be attached to the 
frame with clevises, it adds to the con¬ 
venience with which they may be taken 
off. The short end of the arm can be 
made shorter than shown in the cut—the 
shorter it can be made and not cause the 
derrick to tip over, the more easily the 
loaded arm can be turned over the rick. 
The photograph was taken when the 
derrick was not in use, hence the rope 
and pulleys do not show. I will try to 
get a photograph this year when in use. 
The derrick is turned by hand by a 
strong iron rod through the pole at a 
convenient height from the ground. 
The pole rests in a 2 or 3-inch circular 
hole in the 2xl0-inch base across the 
frame. The shoulder of the end of the 
DERRICK FOR STACKING CLOVER. Fig. 197. 
pole should be kept well greased. If the 
wind is blowing, the arm when turned 
with the load, should go with the wind. 
JOHN M. JAMISON. 
Cow Peas for Strawberries. 
E. E. I!., (hand Rapids, Mich.—I have been 
thinking of turning under an old strawberry 
bed (full of weeds, as usual), and sowing 
some cow peas for a fertilizer, leaving them 
on the ground through the Winter, plowing 
them under in the Spring, and setting a 
new strawberry bed on the same piece of 
ground. What do you think of the idea? 
Or would I need some other fertilizer be¬ 
sides the cow peas to have the berries do 
well? 
Ans. —In this case, we would advise 
you to plow the strawberry bed, work¬ 
ing the ground up well with a harrow, 
and then plant the cow peas in drills, 
rather than to broadcast them. Put 
them 30 inches or 3 feet apart, and 
work them with a cultivator as long as 
you can get through. This will give you 
a better growth of cow peas, and will 
leave the soil in better condition for 
the following strawberry crop. The 
strawberry requires a large amount of 
potash, and you will be disappointed if 
you depend on the cow peas alone for 
fertilizing this crop. If you could use a 
quantity of wood ashes in seeding to the 
cow peas, you will benefit both the cow 
pea crop and next year’s crop of berries. 
If unable to obtain wood ashes, we 
would use at the rate of one part muri¬ 
ate of potash and four parts dissolved 
phosphate rock. 
Salt in the Manure Pile. 
A. M., Warsaw, N. Y .—When drawing ma¬ 
nure from a village to my farm during the 
Summer, it is put in a pile. Is it not a good 
plan to scatter salt in the pile? If so, how 
much? I live within one mile of half a 
dozen salt blocks and can obtain salt cheap. 
Ans. —There is nothing in salt that 
will add plant food to the manure pile. 
It contains chlorine and soda, both of 
which are found in abundance in the 
average soil. The action of salt in the 
manure pile would be much the same as 
its action in the hay mow or in the pork 
barrel. The salt destroys the germs of 
fermentation, and thus prevents decay 
or rot. A manure pile is full of bacteria 
or little forms of life, which grow and 
develop when the conditions are right, 
and thus make the plant food in the 
manure more available. By adding the 
salt, you will destroy the germs, and 
their work will not go on. From this 
point of view, therefore, the salt would 
be an objection in the manure. Its ad¬ 
vantage would be that, where the 
manure is too dry, the salt would large¬ 
ly prevent firefanging. You can do this 
both by conserving moisture and de¬ 
stroying the action of the bacteria. 
When horse manure is piled in large 
piles in dry weather, and not kept moist 
enough, firefanging sets in, and the 
quality of the manure is injured. By 
building the pile with a dish top, and 
stamping it down hard as built, there 
would not be so much danger from fire¬ 
fanging, and the salt will not be needed. 
Feeding Sugar Beets to Stock. 
W. E. F., Williston, Yt .—Will W. I. S., who 
wrote about growing sugar beets on page 
432, tell us how they were fed to stock? 
ANSWERED BY W. 1. SMITH. 
At harvest time, we plowed the beets 
out; we would cover up once in a while 
one, but the plow loosened them all. 
With a three-tined fork, we forked them 
out; afterwards we cut the tops off with 
a butcher knife, and then hauled out¬ 
crop to the cellar, where I had easy ac¬ 
cess to the beets all Winter. 
I fed them to the cows in the middle 
of the day, 1 % bushel divided among 
eight cows, chopping them and mixing 
one bushel of bran with them. I fed en¬ 
silage twice a day, night and morning, 
feeding half a bushel at a time. At 
night and in the morning after the cows 
had eaten their ensilage, I gave them 
either hay, oat straw or bean pods, and 
some corn stalks. This loi of cows were 
gradually drying up, as they were all 
coming in in Spring, but as soon as I 
began feeding sugar beets in place of 
so much ensilage, I noticed at once an 
increase in milk production of from one- 
quarter to one-third, and that the qual¬ 
ity of the milk did not lessen. The cows 
throughout the Winter were in a very 
healthy condition, never lessened in 
flesh and the quantity of milk did not 
invariably change, until I began taking 
the feed away from them to dry them 
up a few weeks just before they came in. 
This has been my experience in a 
practical way, and I believe that sugar 
beets are of much value for feeding 
dairy cattle. They are practically worth 
$4 to $5 per ton for feeding purposes. 
How Many Coats of Cement. 
A. U., Thompson, Conn .—Why use two coats 
of cement for a floor? 1 have been doing 
that kind of work over 20 years, and if any 
one can tell why two coats are better than 
one solid one of the same thickness, let’s 
hear it, for I claim one coat Is better, and 
can give good reasons. 
Ans. —I do not know that one coat is 
superior to two, when durability is con¬ 
sidered, or vice versa. But I do know 
that a floor can be laid much cheaper 
when two coats are used, as is the cus¬ 
tom generally here, for the reason that 
sand, broken stone, or gravel, is much 
cheaper than Portland cement. Manu¬ 
facturers of Portland cement advise the 
use of these cheaper materials for the 
base. Here, if we were going to lay a 
cement floor, we could get the gravel or 
pebbles for the hauling, and doubtless, 
the sand on the same easy terms. By 
using these, one part in eight, or even 
a less amount of cement, will make the 
base as strong as desired. If but one 
layer was put down, and a smooth sur¬ 
face desired, sand must be used—two 
parts to one of Portland cement. Say 40 
barrels of the base are to be laid, but 
five need be cement. But if 40 barrels 
are to be put down, and only one coat or 
layer used 13% barrels of cement must 
be used, making a difference in cost of 
over $20. If our Connecticut friend can 
throw this system aside as wrong, we 
shall be glad to hear from him. 
JOHN M. JAMISON. 
Exterminates POTATO BUGS 
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One filling enough 
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Made of heavy copper; 
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Regular price #2.00. First 
purrnnxer In each district got* :: 
reduced price #1.50 (express 
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2 .Market St., Loekport, N.Y. 
Write for 
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No Water or Platter. 
Suits 7r«a, Bush or Tlsi. 
Two rows of potatoes as 
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LEGGETT & BROTHER, 
301 Pearl Bt„ New York. 
is not used in my Killer of Cab¬ 
bage Worms By mall, 25 and 50c. 
EI)W. SWARTS. Blockton, la. 
P arties wishing to know of a reliable remedy for 
killing Harlequin Bugs, Chinch Bugs, Squash 
Bugs, Plant L:ce, etc., should send 10 cents for my 
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n Fighting Insects.” Fred Kelnleia, Mt. Vernon, 111. 
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Now is the time for Ilf AfinPIlllP VC t0 sle0 P 
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V s 
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Every trap has our guarantee to catch.- 
Sample trap 8Sc. by mall 
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10 fleck St., Abingdon, III. 
"Moo Fibre and Jadoo Liquid 
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of Vegetables or Fruit Send for Catalogues 
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