1907. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
443 
TROUBLE WITH BURSTING CABBAGE. 
The growing of late cabbage to be harvested and 
stored or sold for Winter use is a difficult problem to 
handle. What will be ideal one season will be unsuc¬ 
cessful another. What is considered the proper time to 
plant in the field one season is too early another, or too 
late at some other time. There can be no set rule for 
RIGHT KIND OF A JERSEY COW. Fig. 210. 
the time to plant, neither can we know just how long 
the crop is going to be in maturing. Since moisture 
and sunshine enter largely into the time occupied by 
this, as well as many others of our quick-growing crops, 
the lack of, or the excess of, either sunshine or mois¬ 
ture, either hastens or retards growth. Were I going 
to plant cabbage on soil that I knew was too strong for 
cabbage (by the way, that soil I have not seen yet per¬ 
sonally) I would first crop it with some crop that would 
use up the excess plant food, then plant to cabbage. 
The cabbage will not burst till ripe or at the time when 
it ought to be removed from the field. Hence the 
nearer we can guess how long it is going to be growing 
the nearer we can set plants right. Then again soluble 
plant food enters largely into the time it takes for this 
plant to mature. Here we use quite large quantities of 
nitrate of soda and feed it to the plant as it shows us 
its needs. This naturally governs the growth to a 
considerable extent. If I find the crop growing as fast 
as I think it should, I do not apply any nitrate, but 
such cases are rare. I usually apply at least one dress¬ 
ing of nitrate and sometimes more, using small quanti¬ 
ties each time. Preparation of the soil has much to 
do with the growth and length of time it takes to ma¬ 
ture. A field intended for cabbage should be prepared 
some time in advance of planting to allow the soil to 
settle and become compact. It is rare that cabbage does 
well on freshly-plowed and prepared land. Cultivation 
stimulates the plant and induces it to push forward 
more rapidly, hence reaches maturity earlier. I would 
therefore cultivate less late in the season. When it 
came to fertilizers I would use those lower in nitrogen 
with a fair content of phosphoric acid and potash. Tn 
the question of varieties, there are some I believe that 
show a tendency to burst much more easily than others. 
I have found Nonesuch a variety that heads and stands 
well before it will burst; in fact, it will open on under 
side head next to stem before it does on top; this does 
not do as much harm, however. I am told that Autumn 
King is another variety that stands well without burst¬ 
ing. There is another and last remedy. When your 
cabbage shows signs of ripeness go over field and start 
or pull the plant part way out of ground, cutting off a 
part of its water supply. This usually corrects matters. 
I have done this at times with success. 
C. C. HULSART. 
DON’T USE LEAD PIPE. 
Allow me to utter my protest against the strange 
advice of “E. E. S.,” Delaware Co., N. Y., and then 
give my own experience in using iron pipe for the past 
32 years, without the slightest harm by rust to any 
linen washed in pure soft spring water that has con¬ 
stantly been running through 800 feet of iron pipe all 
these years; nor has the pipe yet given out. But if 
I had to lay new pipe every ten years I would never 
use lead or galvanized iron pipe. Lead is a deadly 
poison when taken into the system either through the 
stomach or through the pores of the skin by the use of 
hair dyes, etc. I have personally known so many fami¬ 
lies ruining their health, and many losing their lives 
by using water coming through lead aqueducts, that 
before putting my pipe in I would not have accepted 
the gift of lead piping had anyone dug the well and 
laid the lead pipe for nothing. Right in sight of my 
dwelling, a mile across the valley, the father and mother 
both died of lead poisoning, and a son had been 25 
years a helpless cripple from the same cause. My 
family physician, who married a daughter and sister of 
these lead victims, gave me this information, but the 
family was ignorant of the cause until too late to save 
themselves. I could fill several pages of foolscap paper 
yvith the recital of individual cases of lead poisoning 
of which I personally know. If the water contains lime 
it will soon coat the lead and perhaps do little harm 
after that. But the purer the water the more it acts 
on the lead and the greater the danger. I used iron 
pipe lined simply with coal tar. But, of course, that 
tar has been gone years ago, and there is no doubt 
much rust inside the pipe. But the water running 
steadily day and night the year round, the water comes 
clear, and the outdoor faucets do not freeze when the 
mercury is 20 degrees -below zero. By turning the 
water on full head suddenly the water will show some 
rust now. But iron is by no means an unhealthy tonic. 
I have since put in an irrigating plant and used only 
plain iron pipe, but two inches in diameter instead of 
one inch, as at the first well. The fall from my first 
well to the lower tenement kitchen is 59 feet. The 
second well is a few rods from the other on about the 
same level. But we get from 30 feet fall to 75 feet, 
according to the varying faucets we draw from for 
irrigation. Some years ago the lead pipe question was 
discussed at an institute of our horticultural and agri¬ 
cultural societies of Worcester County nearly all one 
day. We had physicians that explained the danger. 
And many men gave their own experience and obser¬ 
vation that accorded fully with all the warning from 
the doctors. S. H. r. 
Worcester Co., Mass. 
I notice in your letters concerning springs and the 
use of their waters, that lead pipe is advised regard¬ 
less of results. Where the water has an appreciable quan¬ 
tity of lime in it, in solution, as in Philadelphia it pre¬ 
cipitates upon the inner coat of the pipe as a carbonate 
of lead—insoluble—absolutely free from danger as a 
lead poison. Where the water is chemically pure or re¬ 
latively a pure, soft water, it is wise to examine and 
see whether the water is a carrier of lead—producing 
A COMMON SENSE FARMERS’ CLUB. Fig. 211'. 
a slow, insidious lead poisoning. Farm house wells 
frequently are recipients of sewage from barnyards or 
closets. This water is particularly dangerous if it holds 
in solution germs of typhoid fever. Where such water 
is used it is particularly brilliant, and if questioned, a 
half a grain to a grain of nitrate of silver crystal 
dropped in a glass of it will immediately show columns 
of beautiful pearl wreaths, and if charged with lime¬ 
stone the color will be a dirty yellow. 
Pennsylvania. dr. b. h. detwiler. 
QUESTIONS ABOUT A MAINE ORCHARD. 
Last Fall I moved on to a farm in Androscoggin County, 
Maine. Soil, light sandy loam, appears* to he very deficient 
in humus, underlaid with clay, which crops out in some of 
the lower places. 1. IIow can I increase the fertility of the 
soil? Will cow peas or Soy beans do anything as far 
north as this (44 degrees) sown at last cultivating? IIow 
about Sand vetch? 2. People tell me that Timothy will not 
grow on this sandy soil: that I will have to use Red-top 
instead, hut I never have been able to do much with Red-top 
on dry land. Will any of the grasses advertised in the seed 
catalogues take the place of Timothy? 3. I have an orchard 
of about 30 apple trees, mostly large ones, about- all native 
fruit. What would I best top-work on them for shipping; 
Baldwin, Ben Davis, or is there some other kind better? 
One agent told me to work my old trees into Baldwins if 
I wanted to, but not set young Baldwins, as they would 
not do well. Our Winters are cold—14 degrees below 
zero last Winter a mile from here—but my farm is sheltered 
from high winds and the cold of the river bottom. 4. I 
belong to the 50-year-old class. What kind of apples would 
I better set for a young orchard; something that will be 
likely to sell as shipping apples 15 years hence? I intend 
trying the mulch method, think to save moisture, and add 
humus to the soil at the same time. c. B. G. 
Durham, Me. 
1. The best treatment for your soil is to secure a 
good stand of Mammoth clover. This may be done 
either by seeding to clover alone or by sowing to oats 
this Spring and seeding with this crop. Cow peas and 
Soy beans have both been grown at the experiment 
station at Orono, but very few tubercles were developed, 
and in order to get the best results it would be better to 
inoculate the soil with material obtained from some 
locality where these crops had previously been grown. 
2. In seeding for hay in some parts of Androscoggin 
County the following formula is used with good re¬ 
sults : 15 pounds Timothy, five pounds Red-top, 10 
pounds Red clover, five pounds Alsike. For permanent 
pasture on your soil I should add from five to 10 pounds 
Kentucky Blue grass. Orchard grass is also sometimes 
used in place of Timothy, but personally I do not favor 
it. 3. You cannot do better than Baldwin in top-graft¬ 
ing your apnle trees. In starting a young orchard I 
should prefer planting Stark, Spy or Tolman, and top¬ 
working to Baldwin at four or five years of age. 4. The 
leading commercial sorts that come into bearing in the 
shortest time are Stark, Wealthy and Ben Davis. I do 
not favor the latter, because of its poor quality and the 
fact that it is easily injured in case of frost before 
harvesting. w. m. munson. 
Maine. 
OIL AND IRON FOR SHINGLES. 
I note an inquiry on page'401 as to the use of coal tar 
on shingles, and *want to say don’t. Posts dipped in 
hot coal tar to a point six inches above ground will 
last many years—I don't know how long. A few years 
ago I saw posts thus treated taken from a loose, gravelly 
soil 18 years after they were set, and on examining 
them with a hatchet they seemed as hard and sound 
as ever; while a fence just across the street made with 
the same kind of posts near the same time had to have 
new posts in about 10 years. As to shingles, I* would 
advise iron paint applied before laying, high enough 
to cover both laps. In 1890 I built my last residence. 
The architect told me that a slate roof would cost $150 
more than would a shingle roof. So I bought the cheap¬ 
est grade of well-seasoned hemlock shingles, then I 
bought 52 gallons of oil and about a peck of oxide of 
iron, making a paint such as tinners use. Placing these 
in a large kettle, I heated it, and stirring it frequently 
I dipped the shingles to a point 10 to 12 inches up from 
the butts. When dry they were laid. I then went on to 
the roof and with a stiff whitewash brush slightly 
moistened with the paint I wiped the finished roof, 
more for the looks of it than for anything else. Six 
years from that time I enlarged the front porch, cover¬ 
ing it with a much better, grade of pine shingles, but- 
without dipping them in the paint; but to have the color 
the same as that of the main roof I painted the roof 
after it was finished. Last Summer, after it had been 
on 10 years, it began leaking so badly that I had it 
newly shingled. At that time the workmen examined 
the shingles on the main roof and pronounced them 
perfectly sound—seemingly as good as ever. 
Lawrence Co., Pa._ i. A. thayer. 
YOUNG STOCK AT SUNRISE FARM. 
At Sunrise Farm Mr. Corbin has a nice herd of 
Holstein cows for his dairy farm. He raises his best 
calves, part of them for his own herd and part for other 
people to buy. His own children and hist little nieces 
and nephews from New York City have ample oppor¬ 
tunity every Summer to train the calves, and to get a 
lot of innocent fun and plenty of fresh air out of the 
Experience. Fig. 212 is suggestive. Mr. Corbin not 
only believes in purebred cows, but he believes in pure¬ 
bred Holsteins for the common farmer and creamery 
patron. He finds his herd more profitable at the cream¬ 
ery since he has been keeping purebred animals, and 
of course he makes some sales at a more profitable 
price than he could with common stock. The exercise, 
YOUNG THINGS ON THE FARM. Fig. 212. 
out of doors, that the children find, as indicated by the 
picture, is not only good for the children, but is a 
benefit to the calves. After having been handled in 
this way the young animals will no longer be wild nor 
timid if good care is taken of them. Such animals are 
more readily developed to make good cows than those 
that are wild, and afraid of every motion that is made. 
A scared cow is a dairy misfit. h. h. l. 
