356 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
May 18 
Farmers' Club. 
[Every query must be accompanied by 
the name and address of the writer to In¬ 
sure attention. 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.] 
Cement Cistern for Manure. 
ir. B. TT., Aetc York.—I am going to build 
a small stable for two or three horses and 
one cow, and wish to fix a manure shed 
alongside with a cement floor, so as to save 
all the manure under cover, with a vat 
underneath to collect all the urine, to be 
pumped over the pile. No cellar under the 
stable. Who can tell me best how to do it? 
1 got the idea from page 34 of your Jan¬ 
uary 19 issue. 
Ans. —Who can give experience with 
a plan of this sort? We have seen 
something of the sort—a cement vat or 
cellar under the pile of manure so that 
the liquids drained into it. A bucket 
pump was used to lift the liquids so that 
they leached through the manure sev¬ 
eral times, and were at last carried in 
a tank on wheels and sprinkled over 
grass or grain. The plan has probably 
been tried by some of our readers, and 
we shall be glad to hear from them 
about it. 
Wide-Tired Wheel Hoe Wanted. 
A., Dover, N. H.—Do you know of any 
maker of wheel plows or wheel hoes with 
wide tires? I work in a mill, but cultivate 
about three-quarters of an aot’e, mostly 
fruit, for family use and pleasure, but 
there is not so much pleasure as hard 
work when the wheel sinks up to the hub 
in my sandy soil, and it has to be pushed 
through the soil instead of over it. I 
would also like a wheelbarrow with a wide 
tire, the tire to be convex to enable it to 
tip sideways easily. A six-inch tire would 
suit my wants; would not cut up my lawn, 
and 1 think it would wheel much easier 
over the soil in garden. 1 bought an Em¬ 
pire spray pump last Spring, fitted it up 
with 50 gallons of homemade Bordeaux 
.Mixture, and had the old trouble with nar¬ 
row tires. Three of us hauled it over the 
garden, and it was enough for a horse, but 
1 have no horse, so only fill it one-third full. 
Ans. —Here is a chance for some of 
our manufacturers. Some people advo¬ 
cate wide tires on the hard road, but 
think narrow tires good enough for the 
soft garden and farm. 
Value of Sweet Clover. 
8. O. M. T., Zaliski, O.—ls Sweet clover of 
any benefit to the farmer? Bee papers and 
bee keepers are trying to get it to growing 
all over the country, claiming that it makes 
good pasture for all kinds of stock and 
good hay, as well as being a great honey 
plant. I don’t see anything in the farm 
papers about it. I have never had any ex¬ 
perience with it, but would like to know 
something about it. I am not a bee keeper. 
Ans.— This is a sort of tramp and 
pioneer plant combined. Every country 
boy knows it as a settler on sand banks, 
along railway cuts and on bare road¬ 
sides. In the Middle West it is every¬ 
where. Curious that it has never im¬ 
pressed the eastern farmer with a feel¬ 
ing that it is valuable as a forage plant 
or a soil regenerator. In the sandy 
lands of the South, it is used as a green 
manure. In the same country, where 
they use the “beggar weed” for the pur¬ 
pose of putting nitrogen and humus in¬ 
to the soil. Sweet clover, or Bokhara 
clover as it is sometimes called, is also 
employed. It is a biennial. If sown in 
the Spring some plants seed the same 
season, but generally they do not give 
a crop of seed until the second year. It 
is a moderately deep-rooting plant, but 
does not penetrate the soil as deeply as 
Alfalfa. As a forage plant it must be 
handled rather carefully, because the 
stems soon get hard, fibrous and unpal¬ 
atable. Cattle do not take to it readily, 
but may acquire a taste for it. Prof. 
Roberts says the acquiring process is a 
slow one. As a cover crop it is not ideal, 
because it is a branchy grower and 
makes a thin cover. Perhaps if mixed 
with something else which would 
thicken up at the base, it would be de¬ 
sirable. I do not believe that we have 
use for it generally, except on the thin¬ 
nest and poorest of soils, but on worn- 
out limestone soils I am of the opinion 
that Sweet clover is one of those plants 
that have been overlooked. 1 wish we 
might have some experience from those 
who have tried it. john craig. 
Injured Sugar Maple Trees. 
E. B. D., Brushton, N. 7.—What can I do 
for a maple sugar bush of about 300 trees, 
from which bark was all blazed off when 
tapped this Spring? It was done by a 
man who had seen the rough bark 
smoothed off large rough-barked trees. 
Mine are all small smooth ones. The spots 
vary from the size of a silver dollar to 
three inches square. Would painting do 
any good? 
Ans. —Rossing off the bark when tap¬ 
ping is a most useless as well as in¬ 
jurious practice. It is much more harm¬ 
ful on thin, fine-meshed bark than on 
trees having coarse, scraggly bark. If 
rossed down to the “quick,” as it very 
likely was in this case, a long crack, or 
seam will soon appear in the bark both 
above and below the tap-hole, and the 
bark will also loosen from about the 
hole to the extent that the rossing was 
done. This will certainly injure the 
tree, but will not kill it unless followed 
year after year. Simply painting over 
the injured place is hardly sufficient. 
Ihe hole should be stopped to prevent 
the bark from loosening about it. Seal 
up the hole with a small wad of graft¬ 
ing wax and then apply thick paint over 
all. A cheap wax can be made by melt¬ 
ing up about five pounds of rosin and 
one pound of tallow. This will make a 
hard wax that should oe melted in a 
small cup or basin and applied with a 
little wooden paddle, a. r. Phillips. 
Land Too Sour for Clover 
('. N. It., Canton, To raise clover suc¬ 
cessfully I have to use lime. To raise 
other crops, like potatoes and cereals, 1 
need potash and phosphoric acid. 1 use 
mui'iate of potash and dissolved rock. 
From my experience and what I read I 
am convinced that these last-named sub¬ 
stances drive the lime out of the soil, and 
in other ways cause the land to become 
sour, or in a condition where more lime 
must be used in order to grow clover 
again. I have very little stable manure, 
and so hardly know what to do. It seems 
foolish to buy fertilizers that will put 
ground in such a condition that one must 
go to more and greater expense in apply¬ 
ing lime before clover can be raised, and 
all this for the small benefit derived from 
the fertilizers above their cost. Yet I feel 
I must have the fertilizers, and so it leaves 
a very perplexing question. Are there 
other substances I could use that would 
not tend to sour the soil, and if so, would 
not their cost prohibit their use in gen¬ 
eral farming? 
Ans. —On some heavy soils, especially 
where there is a close hardpan near the 
surface, it is likely that muriate of pot¬ 
ash does “sour” the soil. Experiments 
have shown that on such soils lime 
gives excellent results. Acid or dis¬ 
solved phosphate rock, as is well- 
known, will increase the acidity in most 
soils—especially those naturally in¬ 
clined to be sour. Sulphate of potash 
or wood ashes will not cause this trou¬ 
ble—neither will fine ground bone. We 
think that the danger to the clover is 
exaggerated. Surely lime is cheaper 
than fertilizers, and in the case men¬ 
tioned we should think it would pay to 
use 1,600 to 2,000 pounds per acre every 
few years. This application would pre¬ 
vent too much souring. You ought to 
read the bulletins issued by the Rhode 
Island Exp. Station, Kingston, R. I. 
White Winonca Fowls. 
What arc the merits and demerits of the 
White Minorca fowl? reader. 
The White Minorcas, as a breed, have 
only been known among us about 15 
years. Their origin is “veiled in obliv¬ 
ion,” but their name would suggest the 
Island of Minorca, in the Mediterranean, 
and it is claimed that they are the only 
Mediterranean fowl whose weight ap¬ 
proaches the Wyandottes, averaging 
about a half-pound less. For a descrip¬ 
tion of the appearance of the bird, will 
quote from the Poultry Monthly: 
The White Minorca has a large body, and 
.«lands weli up on its legs; it has a broad 
chest, and a long flat back. The standard 
requires the tail to be carried upright, but 
breeders generally prefer having it carried 
well back. The body of the male is long, 
square in front, tapering toward the rear. 
The thighs are stout; shanks medium in 
length, stout in bone, and are pinkish white 
in color; the comb is single, large, perfectly 
straight, evenly serrated, and extending 
well back over the head. Wattles are thin 
and pendulous, and correspond with the 
size of the comb; ear-lobes pure white. 
The general appearance of the females in 
body is the same as the male, rather long, 
broad and deep. Her comb is single, large 
and drooping to one side. The color of the 
White Minorca must be white throughout, 
feathers other than white disqualify. The 
comb, face and wattles are a bright red, 
showing no white in the face. The eyes 
are hazel or red. 
When dressed for market these birds, 
with their gray legs and pinky white 
skin, make a poor display as compared 
with the yellow legs and rich golden- 
tinted fiesh of the White Wyandotte. 
But, on the other hand, the White Mi¬ 
norca eggs are as large, beautiful, por- 
celain-like white, while the White Wy¬ 
andottes, though a good size, are brown 
in color. Regarding prolific egg yield 
the Minorca fanciers claim precedence 
for their fowls, as do also the Wyandotte 
breeders for theirs. Regarding hardi¬ 
ness and early maturity, for the same 
reason, it seems to be a “drawn game,” 
though I am inclined to think that the 
White Wyandottes have a slight advan¬ 
tage here, as well as in me weight and 
market points. While the size and ap¬ 
pearance of the White Minorca eggs are 
superior, they average in weight 15 per 
cent more than the Black Minorcas. The 
birds are exceptionally intelligent, bid¬ 
dable and gentle. The standard weight 
for these fowls is eight pounds for a 
cock; 6V^ pounds for a cockerel and a 
hen, 5% pounds for a pullet, r. e. w. 
Chazy, N. _ 
Kentucky Fruit.— P’ruit trees of all 
kinds are very full of bloom. In order to 
secure a nice marketable fruit a great 
amount of thinning out will have to be 
done. I use a device which is very simple, 
yet one person can do so much in one day 
as live can by hand. Take a stick any 
length (an old broom handle is good), drive 
a small wire nail through one end, then 
with a pair of pinchers bend a small hook. 
Commence thinning when fruit is the size 
of a iarge pea. Slip the hook over the 
fruit; a small jerk does the work. With 
a little experience the fruit can be pulled 
off very rapidly with no injury to the trees. 
Owensboro, Ky. j. h. h. 
ARMSTRONG & McKELVT 
I’itlsburgh. 
BEYMER-BAUMAN 
Pittsburgh. 
D AVIS-CHAMBERS 
Pittsburgh. 
EAHNE8TOCK 
Pittsburgh. 
ANCHOR 
ECKSTEIN 
ATLANTIC 
BRADLEY 
BROOKLYN( 
JEWETT 
ULSTER 
UNION 
SOUTHERN 
SHIPMAN 
COLLIER 
MISSOURI 
RED SEAL 
SOUTHERN 
JOHN T. LEWIS A BROS CO 
Philadelphia. 
M0RLE7 
Cleveland. 
SALEM 
Salem, Mass, 
CORNELL 
Buflalo. 
KENTUCKY 
Louisville. 
Cincinnati. 
New York. 
Chicago. 
I St. Louis. 
P 
.AINT SAVES MONlvY. It pro¬ 
tects your property and improves its 
appearance. Buildings kept well 
painted last longer ; without protection from 
weather and sun they will soon decay. 
In painting, labor is two thirds of the 
cost. It Is a waste of money to put any¬ 
thing but the best paint on your buildings. 
The best paint is Pure White Lead (see 
list of brands which are genuine) and Pure 
Linseed Oil. This will protect your build¬ 
ings longer and better than any other 
known paint material. 
For any color or shade required, use NATIONAL LEAD COM 
PANY’S Pure White Lead Tinting Colors, Pamphlet sent free 
upon application. 
National Lead Co., loo William Street, New York. 
Opraving 
V Dove 
If you have 
the right 
pump 
With 
Without 
Truck. 
Qur No. 305 Outfit 
^is as good a pump 
as ever was sold, and 
you will be sur¬ 
prised when 
you learn the 
price. We sell 
Pump, Barrel, 
5 feet of 
Hose,Gra¬ 
duated 
Nozzle, 
which 
throws 
aspray as 
fine as 
mist. Ex¬ 
tension 
Pipe for 
high trees 
and with first 
order from 
_ every town, 10 
lbs. of Paris- 
Green free. Write for 100-page Catalog, free, telling 
all about it, and how and when to spray. Also other 
valuable Information. 
KOS8 BROS., Front Street, Worcester, Mass. 
Cumberland Raspberry Plants for Sale 
or Exchange. P. SUTTON, Exeter, Luzerne Co., Pa. 
PENNELL STRAWBERRIES 
this year. Send for Circular and Supplement, What 
the Growers Say, to JOHN W. PENNELL, 
South Norwalk, Conn., Rural Del. 37. 
'prices on Peach Trees reduced. Trees kept dormant 
^ and In good condition until June 1. List of var. 
on application. B. S. Johnston, B. 1, Stockley. Del. 
CIIIC CTAOIf of ABUNDANCE and BUR- 
rillC dlUUA BANK PLUM. large enough 
to bear the first year after planting. All in good 
shape to plant. Low price. Order at once. 
LAWRENCE NURSERY CO., Lawrence, Mass. 
SUCCEED WHERE 
‘ Largest Nursery. OTHERS FAIL. 
Fruit Book Free. Result of 76 years' experience. 
STARK BROS.. Louisiana, Ko. i Saniville, N.T. 
DORMANT 
Melons 
1,500 each Salway, Elberta, Ford’s Late, B. Smock, 
Chair’s Choice and Stump. 200 to 800 Susquehanna, 
Oidmlxon, Champion, Geary, Early Crawford, Bil- 
yen's, Crawford Late. 150 Champion Quince. 500 
Bartlett, 250 Clapps, 100 Seckel, Sheldon, Vermont 
Beauty. Summer. Clairgeau, Manning’s Elizabeth, 
Idaho, Flemish, Wilder, Anjou. Trees In dormant 
condition. Prices very low to close out. 
WOODVIBW NURSERIES, B. 100, Uriah, Pa. 
in Florida and Georgia are very profit¬ 
able crops if produced early in the sea¬ 
son. Tlie best fertilizer to force their 
early growth and maturity is 
Nitrate of Soda, 
which should be used with the proper 
proportions of potash salts and acid 
phosphate. When properly applied it 
cannot fail to develop the largest and 
finest yields for the early market. 
Full particulars free upon application 
to John A. Myers, 12-0 John St., 
New York City. Nitrate of Soda for 
sale hy dealers-, we send you a list of them. 
Sweet Potato and Tomato Plants. Price¬ 
list free. CALEB BOGGS & SON, Cheswold, Del. 
Sweet Potato Plants.—Jersey Yellow, 
tL50 per 1,000. 100 by mail, 60c. 11 kinds. Send for 
circular. F. 8. NEWCOMB, Vineland, N. J. 
TARMAIV IVn Q fl-90 barrel. Quick shipments. 30 
UfliliUaD iiU. ^standard var. Banner Field Beans, 
Dent Field Corn. 26 B. F.R. Eggs, 11.50; for exhibition, 
$2.50. 8. J. Smith's Potato Farm, Manchester, N. Y. 
Imes* 
Blight - Proof \ 
Seed Potatoes 
1901 Catalogue, Free, 
gives particulars 
CARMAN No. 3. 
To prove superiority of our 
Seed Potatoes, we otter 2,000 bu. 
at $2.50 per J-bu. bbl., f. o. b. 
The W. E. Imes Seed Co., 
Smith, Mloh 
pOR SALE—200 lbs. of Giant Argenteull Asparagus 
Seed. This variety of asparagus Is the earliest, 
largest and most prolific asparagus grown on the 
American continent. Price. $1 per Ib. Address 
WM. C. GERATY, Youngs Island, 8. C. 
T^ATIVE EVERGREENS.- Balsam Fir, Arbor 
Vitae, White Pine, American Spruce and Hem¬ 
lock, 6 to 12 inches, at $4 per 1,000 ; 5,000 for $15. 
Packing free. Also, transplanted Evergreens at 
lowest prices. Mrs. James A. Root, Skaneateles, N.Y. 
Clover Seed @ $8 to 17 per 
I or wHO bn.; 600 bu. Crimson Clover Seed 0 
16 ptr bn. I 1,000 bu. Cow Peas @ 11.26 to $1.76 per bu. 
J. H. HOLLAND, Milford, Del. 
AULIFLOWER SEED 
High grade Danish seed bj mail, direct from the 
grower In Denmark, to your address, postpaid. 
Danish Snowball, V oz.60o 1 oz. 11.60 lib. tlS.OO 
Dwarf Erfurt.X oz. 66o 1 oz. $1.86 1 lb. $82.00 
KAJILKOLLE, 840 £. Fallerton Av. Ohlcago, 111. 
Packard’s Ensilage Seed Cern 
write to-day for circular Md sample. My seed 
com ALWAYS GROWS. If yon own a silo, you need 
my Early Mastodon corn. Makes one-third heavier 
crop than Learning. Other varieties. 
PACKARD. Seed Grower, Dover. Del. 
