6 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
January.. 2 
Low-Down Wagons. 
T. A., Marengo, N. Y.—I think that 
N. C., Waterloo, N. J. has made a mis¬ 
take in advising H. L. it. of Milford, 
N. J., who is looking for low, stout 
wheels for his farm wagon, to procure 
felloes four inches wide and one-half 
inch thick. The width is all right, but 
the thickness is “too thin.” They 
would hardly hold the spokes in place. 
I have a wagon in use on the farm with 
four-incn tires three-eighth inch thick, 
with felloes two inches thick, front 
wheels 31 inches high, and hind wheels 
3G inches hign, which 1 consider about 
the right size for farm use. I have a 
three-horse tongue that I put on if I 
wish to draw heavy loads, which I find 
very convenient. 1 have, also, a set of 
metal wheels, four-inch tires, half-inch 
thick, 30 and 34 inch wheels, tires of 
steel, spokes the same and hubs of cast 
iron, on which heavy loads of stone, 
sand and grain have been drawn the 
past summer, and they show no signs of 
giving out. 
How to Save Late Strawberries. 
G. W. H., Antlers, Col. —I was much 
interested in Mr. Mattison’s article on 
second-crop strawberries (page 789), and 
must give him credit for the good points 
he so freely gives to R. N.-Y. readers. 
Mr. Mattison is right when he says that 
transplanting the plants a second time 
causes them to make large stools instead 
of runners. This has been my experi¬ 
ence. Mr. Mattison also says that, had 
his entire patch consisted of Beder 
Wood and Enhance he could have 
picked, at least, 2,000 quarts in October 
had the frost kept away. We are in the 
same boat here in Colorado. With my 
method of growing the plants, I have no 
trouble in getting Jessie, Parker Earle 
and others to bloom during September 
and October, but, usually, when the 
varieties are making a good headway in 
the way of blooms and green berries, 
Jack Fi’ost appears and blackens our 
prospects in a single night. But of late, 
I have taken the advantage of Mr. Frost 
by having ready-made frames the same 
as we use for hotbeds or cold frames 
and one foot high. These are (when 
frost threatens), carried to the straw¬ 
berry patch and placed over the rows, 
and covered nights with light frames 
made of muslin. Later, when freezing 
weather sets in, and the muslin covers 
are inadequate for keeping the frost out, 
we gather up what sashes we have, and 
cover the best part of the patch with 
these. But 1 find that muslin will keep 
out 10 degrees of frost in this dry clim¬ 
ate, and will keep the berries from 
freezing till the thermometer registers 
15 degrees below freezing, as in this 
climate a strawberry itself will stand 
five and six degrees of frost without 
being injured. Had Mr. Mattison been 
prepared, and covered his best Enhance 
plants in a similar way, he might have 
picked many quarts of berries, and thus 
enlarged the receipts of his model straw¬ 
berry patch. In this age of competition, 
we must study up new ways of produc¬ 
ing crops, and if we can make $1 by ex¬ 
pending 50 cents for material, we are 
just 50 cents ahead. 
Peach Borers and Cut-Worms. 
E. T., Penza, Ohio. —My experience 
with the Peach borer is limited to this 
season, which has been an extraordinary 
one, and may be of little use in other 
seasons and localities. The borers in my 
two-year-old orchard are, at this date, 
(December 15) from one-half to three- 
fourths of an inch in length, and nearly 
all of them are on the outside of the 
trunks, just below the surface of the 
soil, in a little cell built between the 
mass of gum and the bark of the tree. 
Now if it is the habit of the borer to 
leave the tree and winter in the gum, 
why is not the mild winter weather the 
time to hunt them, when much cutting 
will be avoided ? 
The cheapest, quickest and most ef¬ 
fective way of protecting plants from 
cut-worms, that I have found, is to cut 
the brass head from an empty paper 
shot-shell, slit the paper tube along one 
side, open it enough so that the stem of 
the plant may pass through, and it will 
close of its own accord. These shells 
may be left on such plants as cabbage 
and tomato without harm, as the tube 
will expand with the growth of the stem. 
I-have used them on strawberries on in¬ 
fested ground, and if the shells can be 
easily procured, it will often pay to use 
them just to protect the little plants 
from clods during the first few weeks of 
cultivating, when one wishes to run the 
cultivator deep and close to the plants. 
Nearly every town has a gun club, and 
millions of shells are emptied every year 
never to be used again, as it doesn’t pay 
to reload them. Any one wishing to get 
empty shells can get them for almost 
nothing by making arrangements with 
the club. 
Sawdust Manure. 
A. A. H., Bellows Falls, Vt.—I note 
with interest what is said of sawdust as 
a mulch and as manure on page 803. 1 
have had some very costly experience 
in this line which may be of interest to 
others. Five years ago, while I was 
living in the village, a neighbor offered 
me a large pile of manure if I would draw 
it away. This manure was made from 
two or three horses and one cow, was in 
a barn cellar, and the drain from the 
house and sink run out on top of this 
pile, so that it was not burnt up, and 
looked black and rich. The horses and 
cow were bedded with sawdust from a 
mill where both hard and soft lumber 
were sawed. I put this manure on to 
different parts of my land. Two loads I 
put on light, sandy loam, two loads on a 
piece of quite heavy land, a sort of clay 
loam and the rest into a wet swamp. 
The last I put on very thick (six or 
eight inches), so as to dry up the water, 
it being so wet that it was difficult to 
get a team over it. On the wet land, it 
dried up the water and loosened up the 
heavy earth, so that I could work it, and 
have grown big crops on it every year 
since. Last season, I drained it. On the 
clay loam, I planted winter squashes 
and set out plum and cherry trees. Just 
as far as those two loads of manure 
were spread, not a squash vine came up. 
although I planted them the second 
time, and not a single tree lived, while 
all the other squashes and trees planted 
at the same time lived and did well. 
The second year, I planted trees again 
on this ground, and none lived. The 
third year, I tried it again, and all lived. 
On the lighter land, I planted potatoes 
and not half of them came up, and those 
that did did not produce any potatoes. 
The next season, I planted corn, and 
some of it did not grow two feet high, 
and none of it tasseled out. Then 1 
manured it very heavily with first-class 
manure, and spread on a lot of ashes 
and the next spring set it to straw 
berries. Not a half-dozen plants lived, 
and I have been trying ever since to get 
a crop of something for this land, but 
have not yet succeeded. This piece is 
about midway of my lot, and while 1 
grow big crops all around it, I have 
never been able to grow anything on 
the land where this sawdust manure 
was spread—with grass, weeds or any¬ 
thing else. I still take all that kind of 
manure I can get for the drawing, but I 
put it on wet land or in my pig pen. 1 
would not use it as a mulch for trees 
unless pretty well rotted, and I would 
never use it on any but wet land. 
Keep 
Your blood pure, your appetite good, and your 
digestive organs in healthy condition at this 
season, and thus avoid serious illness, by taking 
Hoods 
Sarsaparilla 
The best—in fact 'the One True Blood Purifier. 
Hood’s Pills cure nausea, indigestion, 
biliousness. 25 cents. 
NEWPEACHES{[ 
—Triumph, Greensboro, Sneed, Fitzgerald and Bokara No. 3 . 
NFW fiKFSTNUT^ -Nnmbo, Paragon, Ridgley. For description of 
I IHI HI these and other Fruits, Ornamental Trees, Slirubs, 
Roses, Plants, Bulbs, Seeds, etc. Sendforour valuable tree catalogue, a 
book of 168 pages, magazine size. One of the most, if not the most complete 
assortments in America. About a quarter of a million PEACH still unsold. 
Many other things in proportion. Seeds, Plants, Bulbs, Small Trees, etc. postpaid. Safe 
arrival and satisfaction guaranteed, larger by freight or express. 
43rd Year. 1000 Aeres. 32 Greenhouses. 
THE STORRS & HARRISON CO., Box 128 Painesville, O. 
The Latest and Largest 
Yellow Freestone PEACH, 
EMPEROR 
TRIUMPH 
The only Yellow Freestone PEACH 
Ripening with Amsden. 
IWI r D C D J The only Sure-Bearing, 
IYI U, IV V/L. IV { Non-Rotting CHERRY. 
For full descriptions send for Catalogue ( 10 c.) We will send our Beautifully Blun. Catalogue with 
the Col’d Plates of the 3 Wonderful New Fruits, and 1 Emperor Peach June Bud hi 
mail, postpaid, for 10c. J0S.il. BLACK, SON & CO., Village Nurseries. Hightstowa N.J 
Before buying any Seeds 
you should write a postal card for 
IIRPFF? FARM ANNUAL 
(UP III kb V The Leading American Seed Ca 
FOR 
1897 
Catalogue 
A handsome new book,—tells the truth about 
The Best SEEDS that Crow! 
Important New Features for 1897. Hundreds of Illustrations. 
Choicest New Vegetables and most beautiful Flowers, painted from nature. 
Our business grows also. We 
_ ___ fill more orders every spring 
than do any other seedsmen in the world. Will you join our army of customers? If so, write TO-DAY. 
W. ATLEE BURPEE & CO., PHILADELPHIA, PA. 
tuvDwtvuuwvtuwvmtw«uwvmuAViu«uu%«mvvuim«i4 
BURPEE SEEDS GROW! 
NEW YEAR 
Is here, and our new catalogue for '97 soon will be. The new 
year is the time to make good resolutions, and the man who 
resolves to plant an orchard of ROGERS FRESH-DUG DANS- 
__ VILLH TREES, next spring, is making a good start In the 
right direction, our little book 'sent free) will tell you about our Fresh-Dug Trees and why we can sell 
them for less money than others can afford to. We sell more trees to RURAL readers than all others 
we^'^pi cast you. ,hem and ROGERS NURSERIES, DANSVILLE, N. Y. 
JERRARD’S SEED P0TAT01S 
are always THE BEST. # Grown from pedigree seed in the I 
new lands of the cold North-East, they yield Earliest and| 
largest crops in every climate. 
JE RRARD’S NORTHERN SEEDS ✓ 
nroduce'carlicr vegetables than any other on earth. I 
OUFTNEW ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE MAILED FREE. Address 
The George W. P.4.errard Co., Caribou. Maine. 
There has never been a time when grow¬ 
ers should guard against failure with more 
care. There has never been a time when 
Ferry'. Seed, were more essential. They are 
, always file best. For sale by leading 
dealers everywhere. Insist on having them. 
FERRY’S SEED ANNUAL 
is full of information for gardeners and 
planters. There will never be a better time 
,than now to send for the 1897 edition. Free. 
D. M. Ferry &. Co., Detroit, Mich. 
NEW 
PLUMS 
TATGE 
The Best. 
MILTON 
The Earliest. 
CHAS. DOWNING 
Most Beautiful. 
Send for catalogue. 
Silas Wilson Co., 
Atlantic, la. 
VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS. 
(JUST OUT.) 
Every American farmer and gardener ought to 
send 25c. (cash or stamps) for this new handbook on 
winter gardening. It tells how to make money in 
cold weather; how to get cash out of the soil during 
every month of the year. It gives the latest proc¬ 
esses of the most successful farm gardeners and 
market gardeners, and Is practical throughout. It Is 
a book for money-makers; not a seed catalogue. 
Gardening (high authority) says of it: “The best 
little book of the kind that we have seen since Peter 
Henderson wrote his ‘ Gardening for Profit.’ ” 
S3?” Second edition ready in December. 
HENRY A. DBEEE, 
No. 714 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. Pa. 
SEED POTATOES 
Orders booked now. 
nated by purchaser. 
—Carman No. 3. Pure 
Thorburn Seed. Large 
or small quantities. 
Potatoes shipped at time deslg- 
J. M. Meredith, Calcium, Pa. 
Everltt s Early pnTATflFQ outyieldMaule’s with 
Thoroughbred lU I rt I ULO Burpee and others; 
150 bushels from 120 pounds. 300 barrels CABMANS 
and others sold to one seed house. Barrel or bulk 
booked for spring. SMITH’S STOCK AND SEED 
FARM, Padeifords, N. Y. 
PD I IflC fill PI fiVCD-The largest handler 
If m ndUll (jLU VCIl of American-grown 
Crimson Clover 8eed In the United States, is JOSEPH 
B. HOLLAND, Grower and Jobber, Milford, Del. 
Also, Cow Peas, Winter Oats. Timothy Seed, etc. 
- Stark fruit Book 
contains new and copyright 
colored plates of over 
IOO rare fruits, etc.—write 
for particulars. Askforlistof 
Stark Trees— $3 per IOO and 
up. Stakk Bko’s, Stark, Mo. 
K TREES 
IIARrRIIIT„| 
STARK TRADE MJUM 
TREES AND PLANTS. 
Full assortment. Special prices on PEACH TREES 
Large stock CALIFORNIA PRIVET. NORWAY and 
SILVER MAPLE. 
JN. P. BROOKS, Lakewood, N. J. 
ftnnCCDCDDV AND CURRANT— 50 , 000 , 
UUUdCDCnm Other Nursery Stock. 
T G. A8HMEAD. Nursery, Williamson, N. Y 
GRAPEYINES 
All old and new varieties Extra quality. Warranted 
true. Loireii ralei. Descriptive Catalogue Free. 
T. 8 . HUBBARD CO., FREDONLA, If. Y. 
TREES AND PLANTS Varieties. 
Blackberries, Strawberries. 
miller DACDDCDDICC the great 
LOUDON nAorDCnniLu MARKET REDS. 
Triumph Peach, Wlckson Plum. Onr catalogue, free, 
will save you money. MYER & SON, Bridgeville, Del. 
BERRY PLANTS 
of all kinds at right 
prices. Catalogue F, 
with remarks on berry growing free. 
R. J. STAHELIN, Bridgman, Mich. 
SOMETHING 
NEW AND 
ORIGINAL 
If you want to see something 
new and original, send for my 
Plant Catalogue. 
T. C. KEVITT, 
Athenla, N. J. 
