1899 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
657 
A Waterproof Coyer. 
R. N. R., Sweetwater, Tenn .—How can i 
make a waterproof cover for a wagon, out 
•of heavy duck? 
Ans. —If the material used in making 
the wagon cover is heavy canvas such as 
is used in making tents for the United 
States army, it will be perfectly water¬ 
proof. We have recently had a tent 
made, using this army duck, and it will 
withstand heavy rains, and hold water 
for hours without allowing'any to pass 
through. If it is desired to use some 
kind of cloth which is cheaper than this 
heavy canvas, then duck, which may be 
painted with the following mixture, may 
be made waterproof: Old pale linseed 
oil, three pints; sugar of lead (acetate 
of lead), one ounce; white resin, four 
ounces. Grind the acetate in a little of 
the oil, then add the rest of the oil and 
the resin. When treated with this mix¬ 
ture, cloth is made impervious to water. 
L. A. C. 
Thrashing Beans. 
Several Reaoers.-How can we fix a 
wheat separator in order to thrash beans 
in it? Are the bean harvesters practi¬ 
cable? 
Ans. —There is no use trying to thrash 
beans with a grain machine, for it is 
simply impossible to do a good job. The 
best bean thrasher is the Bidwell. I 
always sow rape, Crimson clover, rye or 
something in the bean ground at the 
last cultivation, so it is impossible to 
use a bean harvester without cutting up 
what I have sown for feeding. I can get 
cheap Polish help for $1.25 to $1.50 per 
acre, to pull by hand, so I have the 
beans pulled by hand; but not one acre 
in 10 is pulled by hand here. There are 
several makes of harvesters, all about 
the same. The Brockport, the Cale¬ 
donia, and the Bidwell all work alike, 
two shears that are about 3V2 feet long, 
and cut the beans just beneath the sur¬ 
face. There is another with disks about 
two feet in diameter, with prongs that 
revolve under the ground; this machine 
also does good work. They are all used 
on any kind of ground, stony or other¬ 
wise. Last year beans were almost a 
failure, and this year it is much worse. 
Orleans Co., N. Y. ci.ark allis. 
What to Mix with Fish. 
G. A. G., Everetts, Va .—What shall I do 
to make a good balanced fertilizer with fish 
as the base? What should I add for corn, 
or will the fish from the fish works do well 
enough alone? 
The fact to be remembered about fisn 
is that it contains no potash. It has a 
fair per cent of nitrogen, also phosphoric 
acid; but potash must be added to make 
a complete fertilizer. Corn requires a 
high per cent of potash in order to make 
a full crop. If you can buy the dry and 
ground fish, a fair mixture would be 
1,200 pounds of the fish, 550 pounds dis¬ 
solved phosphate rock, and 250 pounds 
of muriate of pottsh. This would make 
a fair fertilizer for corn. If the fish is 
wet, and not ground or dried, we would 
prefer to compost it before using on the 
corn. This can be done by mixing it 
with manure, black soil or any refuse 
containing vegetable matter. It can be 
well rotted down and broadcasted and 
harrowed in. Used in this way, we 
would use the potash and dissolved rock 
separate, scatter it along the hill or 
drill, and work it in with the cultivator. 
In many cases, along the shore, farmers 
use the whole fish, working them into 
the soil around the corn, and using the 
potash and dissolved rock separate. The 
proportions of chemicals here given are 
about right for the dried fish. The wet 
fish refuse contains about three times as 
much water, and a ton of it will not, of 
course, require so much of the chem¬ 
icals. _ 
Buttons made out of milk sound rather 
impossible, but three large factories de¬ 
voted to this industry are reported in Lon¬ 
don. Sour milk is used, which is first made 
into curd, and then treated to great heat 
and enormous pressure. The process costs 
less than the making of bone buttons, and 
the milk buttons are very durable, and do 
not change color. 
Short Stories. 
Potato Diggers. —A reader in Massa¬ 
chusetts, who is evidently a Scotchman, 
has read of our trouble with potato dig¬ 
gers at Hope Farm. He sends a “Scot¬ 
tish Farmer’s Album,” which contains 
a picture of a Scotch potato digger, 
which, it is said, two horses can haul 
with ease. This machine has two wheels 
and a three-cornered scraper at the end 
of a steel arm, passing under and scoop¬ 
ing up the potatoes. Right above this 
scoop is a revolving shaft with arms 
and prongs which turn around to throw 
or scratch out the potatoes against an 
iron grate, which hangs at one side. We 
have a potato digger in this country 
known as the Boss, which works some¬ 
what on this principle. In some locali¬ 
ties it is said to give very good satisfac¬ 
tion. The objections raised against it 
are, that the revolving fingers strike and 
bruise too many tubers, and in weeds or 
grass the revolving shaft is pretty sure 
to be clogged up. 
A Fraud in Butter.— There is a law 
in New York State prohibiting the sale 
of “renovated butter” except when 
branded and marked in a certain speci¬ 
fied way. Agricultural Commissioner 
Wieting calls our attention to a case 
well illustrating how such a law is 
evaded. A sample of this renovated 
butter was found wrapped up in parch¬ 
ment paper, and bearing the brand 
shown below. With nine people out 
of 10 this package would pass as 
ordinary butter, as there was nothing 
to indicate its character except the 
words printed below the brand. If these 
words were printed in black ink there 
might be some chance of their detec¬ 
tion, but they were printed in ink just 
the color of butter, and when the wrap¬ 
per is put around the butter, and moist, 
these letters cannot be seen. You will 
see that the makers of this “Anchor 
Brand” butter apparently have gone to 
work deliberately to deceive the public. 
They take this boiled or “deviled” but¬ 
ter and put their brand upon it, thinking 
to evade the law by printing their de- , 
scription in yellow ink so that the buyer 
will not notice it. The law provides 
that all such butter put up in prints or 
rolls shall be labeled plainly with print¬ 
ed letters in a conspicuous place on the 
wrapper with the words “Renovated 
Butter.” This method of handling the 
Renovated Butter 
The Sterilized Process 
stuff is evidently with the intention to 
deceive the public. Secretary Wieting 
declares that the use of such a label is 
a violation of the law, and he will prose¬ 
cute all persons found selling process 
butter so done up. We give the brand 
publicity so that those who are buying 
this stuff may be put on their guard. 
The best way to drive these frauds out 
of existence is to feed them a good ra¬ 
tion of printers’ ink, and publish them 
to the world, and thus let the people 
know who tne dishonest dealers are. 
Potato Bug Anniiiilator. — This 
year’s experience with the Potato beetle 
has discouraged many farmers. Some¬ 
how it seemed harder to destroy these 
insects than in former seasons. Poisons 
apparently have less effect, and this 
year the insects have continued their 
work up to the death of the vines. Mr. 
E. L. Brillhart, of Oceana County, Mich., 
thinks he has come to the rescue of 
farmers by inventing what he calls a 
Potato-bug annihilator, a picture of 
which is shown at Fig. 248. This ma¬ 
chine is pulled by one horse. It has a 
series of revolving brushes which sweep 
the bugs off the vines into pans, in the 
bottom of which are two endless belts 
which draw the bugs to the center and 
crush them between two rollers. The 
bug that gets in between these two roll¬ 
ers is evidently unfit for future service. 
This machine also cultivates the ground 
at the same time. About 12 years ago 
we met a man who had a model for a 
machine somewhat on this principle. At 
that time most practical men laughed at 
the idea, as they said that Paris-green 
was sure death to the bugs. Things 
have changed since then, and we think 
that a machine made on this principle, 
A POTATO-BEETLE CRUSHER. Fig. 248. 
that will shake the vines without tear¬ 
ing the leaves or breaking the stems, 
will really prove a useful implement. 
“Foot Ease.” —The vacant advertis¬ 
ing places in New York City have been 
covered lately with advertisements of 
“Foot-Ease,” a powder which is shaken 
into the shoe to relieve corns, tight 
shoes, or other discomforts of the feet. 
The pictures would give us to under¬ 
stand that with a package of this Foot- 
Ease a No. 3 shoe can be safely pulled 
on a No. 14 foot. In order to find some¬ 
thing about this wonderful powder, we 
bought a box of it, and had it sent to 
the Geneva Experiment Station for 
analysis. Dr. Van Slyke informs us that 
it contains nothing but powdered talc 
and borax. How these things are to de¬ 
crease the size of the foot we are not 
prepared to state, but it appears that 
thousands of boxes of this stuff are sold 
to those who are foolish enough to be¬ 
lieve that Nature ever intended that a 
big foot should wear a small shoe. 
Free Passes. —Judge Beeman, of In¬ 
diana, returned a railroad pass with a 
letter containing the following: 
Passes over x - ailroads given to legisla¬ 
tures and judges are granted for the same 
purpose, and that purpose is to influence 
those who accept them. I deem this wrong 
for a judge to accept a free pass from a 
railroad company which may be a party to 
legislation in the court of the judge who 
accepts the free pass. If a farmer would 
inclose $100 to a judge, and it was accepted, 
and afterward a suit was instituted by the 
farmer against the railroad company in the 
court of the judge who had accepted his 
hospitality, and knowledge were brought to 
the defendant railroad company of the 
farmer’s hospitality and its acceptance, the 
railroad company would make haste to seek 
a change of venue from the court on ac¬ 
count of the bias of the judge. But, upon 
the other hand, a railroad company places 
a railroad pass worth to him $100 per an¬ 
num in the judge’s hands as a mere matter 
of courtesy, and the judge tries to educate 
himself to believe that he is not influenced 
by accepting the railroad pass. 
Would that more of our judges and 
legislators would take this view. Who 
will say that it is not just right? 
Side Shows at Fairs. —The Manches¬ 
ter Mirror and Farmer, in discussing 
the management of agricultural fairs, 
has this to say: 
The managers of thb great State fairs in 
Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, held at Colum¬ 
bus, Indianapolis and Springfield, where are 
collected thousands of magnificent cattle, 
horses, sheep and swine, acres of farm ma¬ 
chinery, and farm productions filling mam¬ 
moth buildings, make great effort to attract 
the people by expending vast sums of 
money for amusement features. Those 
people who attend spend the money that 
enables fair managers to pay their expenses 
and liberal premiums. Even the staid old 
farmers, who wouldn’t dare to go within 
gunshot of an up-to-date theatre, will shake 
their sides with laughter and cheer to the 
echo the marvellous 'feats of the contor¬ 
tionists and female acrobats, and If the 
side show in the tent isn’t too rank they 
will glance over their shoulder to see if 
any one is looking and dodge in with the 
crowd. 
The Mirror does not defend these shows, 
but argues that without them the aver¬ 
age fair cannot hope to pay expenses. 
That is a mistake, in our opinion. The 
New York State Fair got rid of the fakes 
and “snide” shows and had one of its 
most successful exhibitions. It seems to 
us that a fair that cannot live without 
the aid of vulgar shows and gambling 
devices would better close up its grounds 
for good. 
Digging Potatoes.— Last season, I took 
up my potatoes with Hallock’s Success dig¬ 
ger operated by one horse. Two horses 
would have been better, but as I had only 
the one that was suitable for that kind of 
work, we did it with him alone. He was 
not kept going steadily, being allowed to 
rest a spell every little while while the 
potatoes were being picked up. The land 
is a sandy loam, and, as you may suppose, 
was pretty free of weeds. e. 
Ontario, Canada. 
"He Laughs Best 
Who Laughs Last " 
A hearty laugh indicates a degree of 
good health obtainable through pure blood . 
As but one person in ten has pure blood, 
the other nine should purify the blood 
'with Hood's Sarsaparilla . Then they can 
laugh first, last and all the time, for 
There’s No Waste 
either in knocked off cur* or from tour, musty 
and mouldy corn fodder when using this 
C O RN...P, 
HARVESTER 
SCIENTIFIC 
Safety nent for 
operator. 
Safety shaft* 
__ for horse. 
Jontrt lit- 
le. 
aves 
tore 
rat 
eason. 
Juts corn at 
ny height 
ither in hills or drills. - 
leing strong and well made of good material it will last, 
levery farmer can afford one. Send for catalogue. It. 
Why do you break your back 
Cutting Corn? 
Standard Corn Harvester. 
Has steel frame and safety guards—and everything 
else a good harvester should have. Full catalogue free. 
THE STANDARD HARROW CO., Utica, N. Y. 
MACHINE $10 
Write at one© for* Catalog 
THE BOWEN CABLE STAY FENCE CO. 
Norwalk, Olxio. 
THE SUCCESS 
of Page Fence is not In doubt. Over 500,000 farmers 
are using It, and telling their neighbors to u»e It. 
PAGE WOVEN WIRE FENCE CO., ADRIAN,MICH. 
WILL HELP YOUR RHEUMATISM 
by curing your fence troubles. HARD COILED 
STEEL WIRE, HEAVY HARD SPRING STAYS, 
and FROST WEDGE-LOCKS combined, make an 
Ideal fence. Cheap, strong and durable. Get our 
prices. 
The Frost Wire Fence Co., 
CLEVELAND, OHIO. 
