1907. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
855 
THE PICTURES. 
To one with a little imagination a good 
picture is often better than type. We 
speak of “reading between the lines” of 
an article—the suggestion one takes from 
a picture is often more useful. The pic¬ 
tures this week show much of the 
Thanksgiving spirit. On the first page 
the little Jersey girl with her puppies 
shows a class of young stock which 
every one of us should be thankful for. 
The peach orchard shows some of J. H. 
Hales’ trees three years after the land 
was cleared. You will see how they are 
growing—forking close to the ground 
with a wide bushy top. The big stump is 
a reminder of the wilderness. It will be 
worked out later as it decays. The white 
turkeys know where to go for their 
Thanksgiving dinner; in fact, a flock of 
turkeys becomes quite a nuisance if per¬ 
mitted to roam in a cornfield. One com¬ 
pensation is that they manufacture the 
corn into a high grade of turkey fat. 
On the second page we find another 
good bunch of “the best farm crop.” 
This one was raised in Ohio, and the 
proprietor writes : 
“I notice on page 782, Fig. 389, picture 
entitled, ‘Best Crop on Canadian Farm.’ 
I inclose you picture of best crop on an 
Ohio farm. The horse shown here has 
been the family standby for 10 or 12 
years, besides doing her share of the 
farm work.” E. p. greer. 
The elderly couple planting their crop 
of potatoes with a hoe will not appeal 
to some of our large farmers as an in¬ 
dustrial success, but there is hope in this 
idea of starting perhaps the sixtieth crop 
which the old man has grown. The White 
Wyandottes from Lake County, Illinois, 
consider Thanksgiving a good institution. 
They proceed to scratch beside a shock 
of corn, while the white turkeys arc not 
in that line of work. The spotted pigs 
gathered around the trough give no evi¬ 
dence of complaint, but we feel sorry 
for the woman. It may be pleasant to see 
those pigs grow, but that is no way to 
feed them. It is a wonder they do not 
knock her down in their rush for the 
trough. It would be much better to have 
that trough by the fence and pour the 
slop through a tube, so as to keep away 
from the hogs. 
On the third page the onion field is 
described by the grower. A man with 
such a crop would certainly have strong 
reasons for being thankful. The market 
picture shows a scene in the square at 
Easton, Pa., on the day before Thanks¬ 
giving. Farmers have driven in with 
loads of produce for sale. A good pub¬ 
lic market is a great help for farmers, 
and every large town should provide fa 
cilities for one. We have heard it said 
that storekeepers are opposed to such 
markets because farmers get a retail 
trade in this way. The more farmers 
take in the more they will have to spend 
—to say nothing of the right they have to 
such a trade. The Winter scene of the 
bull and load of wood was taken in Can¬ 
ada. That is good exercise for the bull. 
Honest labor will do him no harm, but 
we have never vet seen a bull that we 
could trust entirely without a ring and 
staff. The spraying scene shows how 
some of the fruit growers in western 
New York operate. They are evidently 
using lime and sulphur, and a sun-bonnet 
is good protection against it. 
PATCH OFPRIZETAKER ONIONS 
About four years ago I became inter¬ 
ested in growing onions through articles 
in The R. N.-Y., written by the Hope 
Farm man. The first year I put in about 
25 square feet, enough to satisfy me what 
the results would be. The following year 
I put in nine rows on the right of the 
present patch, and had about 30 bushels 
very fine “Prizetaker” onions. Last year 
I grew 33 bushels. All the above were 
transplanted. 
This year, wishing to enlarge my 
patch, and not having any facilities for 
growing sets which would be large 
enough to transplant before the first of 
A PRIZETAKER ONION PATCH IN NEW JERSEY. Fig. 428. 
MARKET AT EASTON, PA., DAY BEFORE THANKSGIVING. Fig. 429. 
WORKING UP A THANKSGIVING APPETITE. Fig. 430. 
A SPRAYING SCENE IN NIAGARA CO., N. Y., Fig, 431, 
June, I decided to drill in the seed, 
which I did during the warm weather 
about the 25th of March. The ground 
had been plowed last Fall just before 
freezing, and stable manure was spread 
on it at about the rate of 10 tons per 
acre. This Spring hen manure was put 
on at about the rate of four tons per 
acre. This latter was thoroughly har¬ 
rowed in. Four ounces of Johnson’s 
Long Keeping Prizetaker onion seed and 
10 ounces of Isbell’s Extra Select Prize- 
taker onion seed was drilled in, and I 
can see little or no difference in the 
onions. Cultivation consisted of running 
through them with a Planet Junior hand 
cultivator as soon as the onions could he 
seen. The hoe was then used, and about 
the Fourth of July I went through them 
with the cultivator. The last cultivation 
they received was about July 20. when I 
used the hoe. They should undoubtedly 
have had more cultivation is the early 
part of the season, and as July and Aug¬ 
ust were very dry, they were probably 
injured, but old onion growers have told 
me it would be hard to find nicer speci¬ 
mens than I have, 35 of them filling a 
half bushel basket. 
About one-third on the right of the 
patch was ground on which onions were 
grown the past two years. The remain¬ 
der was in with cabbage last year. The 
onions on the latter ground not looking 
as well as the others about the Fourth of 
July, were sown with guano containing 
about two per cent nitrogen, 17 per cent 
phosphoric acid and two per cent potash. 
The result was soon noticeable, but it 
probably was unwise to apply this dress¬ 
ing so late, as these onions did not ripen 
as well as the others. I would recom¬ 
mend the transplanting method if I 
could have onions to set out by May 1. 
I do not think it is any more work trans¬ 
planting these than caring for the tiny 
seedlings that have been sown with the 
drill, and the onions are more uniform 
in size when grown by the former meth¬ 
od. PHILIP vosseller. 
Warren Co., N. T. 
Poison Ivy.—I have boon quite interested 
in the discussion on poison ivy. I am per¬ 
fectly immune from it, but some of the family 
can hardly look at It without being poisoned. 
We have found that if they bathe bands and 
face in a weak solution of formaldehyde, such 
as we use on wheat for smut, it proves a com¬ 
plete preventive, and quickly relieves after 
the rash lias broken out; also for bee stings. 
It ought also to be generally known what 
a great relief formaldehyde will prove in 
whooping cough by placing a little in a pan 
of water on the stove. s. t. walker. 
Oregon. 
Concrete Around Posts. —In regard to 
setting fence posts with concrete around 
them, why don't our friends make the fence 
posts out of concrete, and then they will not 
rot anyway, and I assure you that such posts 
are cheap first cost, and thoroughly practi¬ 
cal from a using standpoint. I have seen 
posts set the way you say and lots of them. 
It will certainly bold them solid, but it costs 
about half as much as a wooden post costs 
to do the job, and I doubt if a post will 
last much longer than it would in dirt, for 
the fact that they would still be wet and 
would decay at the point of meeting the con¬ 
crete just about as quickly as if they met 
the dirt. r. c. a. 
Michigan. 
Cutters For Alfalfa. —In regard to a 
cutter for shredding Alfalfa suitable for farm 
use, I do not know of any low-power ma¬ 
chine in the market. About a year ago we 
hunted the country over for such a machine, 
and manufacturers told us that they did not 
have It, but several are working on the 
problem. From my experience chopping Al¬ 
falfa is not satisfactory. It should be ground : 
the sharp edges of the cut Alfalfa irritate 
the mouth and throat, and often produce 
sores so that the animals will hardly eat, 
while Alfalfa ground to a meal is as easily 
feed as bran or cornmeal. h. m. cottrell. 
Colorado Agriculture College. 
Kerosene and Scale. —On page 810 you 
call for facts from anyone who has ever 
injured trees by spraying with oils. I have a 
young Baldwin apple tree, planted two years 
ago, which last Spring was full of San Josd 
scale. On a bright sunny day last March I 
saturated a cloth with kerosene oil and I 
washed every limb, twig and trunk thoroughly 
with the oil. The tree came out in full leaf, 
and had some blossoms: (which the late frost 
killed), but it is to-day healthy and vigorous 
without the sign of scale. m. h. 
Paterson, N. J. 
It. N.-Y.—No doubt kerosene will kill the 
scale, but it is not safe to advise careless 
people to use it. 
