1911. 
KEEPING ROOTS OUT OF DRAIN TILE. 
I). H. W., Monongahela, Pa .—My four- 
inch tile sewer leading from my house to 
the street sewer passes between two maple 
shade trees at a depth of about five feet, 
and at this point roots have grown into 
the joints of the sewer and filled it up. 
If I take up the sewer and clean out the 
roots and relay the tile and cement the 
joints, then fill in the dirt two or three 
inches deep over the sower, would there be 
any advantage in putting a gallon of salt 
over each joint? Would it prevent or re¬ 
tard the roots in reaching the joints and 
perhaps again entering the sewer? 
Ans. —The best plan to adopt is to 
law down under each joint of tile, with¬ 
in reach of the roots ahout three inches 
of cement concrete, tilling into the joints 
and building entirely over the top of the 
tile, forming a thimble 10 or 12 inches 
long about each joint, letting this set 
and then cover and fill the trench. These 
thimbles will securely shut out the roots. 
The application of salt would sooner 
or later dissolve and be carried off in 
the percolation of rain water. If your 
correspondent does not care to risk the 
treatment with cement alone, a treatment 
with ordinary liquid coal tar from the 
gas factory would be likely to be longer 
effective in turning the roots aside than 
the salt treatment, but I doubt if this 
could be permanent. The long thick 
cement thimbles would be quite certain 
to be effective. f. h. k. 
“THE RURAb NEW-YORKER 
WHAT TO DO WITH BUCKWHEAT. 
I have a large supply of buckwheat, 300 
bushels. I would like to know how to han¬ 
dle it to the best advantage. I have a good 
flock of poultry and a couple of cows, two 
brood mares. Our poultry have had before 
them for some three months the Maine 
formula, with wheat scattered in deep lit¬ 
ter and corn on the cob, chopped in short 
lengths. They look in excellent condition, 
but are laying poorly: on free range, plenty 
of green. What do you think is lacking? 
I fear they are in too large a flock, 225, 
roosting in several small open-air houses. 
They gather about in large bunches and 
stand so almost all day. Would you use 
the buckwheat for them or disnose of it and 
buy something else? Oats are 50 cents, 
wheat $1, buckwheat from 80 cents, mid¬ 
dlings $1 per 100. o. w. T. 
Oak Grove, Del. 
You are overfeeding your birds so they 
do not care to roam around as they should. 
I would suggest that you try feeding only 
half as much corn and wheat as you are 
now feeding, in the proportion of two parts 
corn, one part wheat and one-third part 
buckwheat added. Y’ou should also place 
beef scrap before your birds in separate 
hoppers if you expect them to lay many 
eggs. It would be advisable to sell your 
buckwheat rather than feed it to laying 
hens in any larger quantities than stated. 
c. H. G. 
If I had your Delaware reader’s 200 
bushels of buckwheat 1 would keep enough 
to feed my poultry until buckwheat was 
harvested again. My way of feeding poul¬ 
try, or stock, is to give them as many 
different kinds of feed as is adapted to the 
stock. I feed my chicks one part ground 
corn, one part meat scraps, two parts mid¬ 
dlings, and when they cannot get grass a 
fifth part of cooked potatoes, beets or car¬ 
rots in the morning mash. At noon buck¬ 
wheat one day, oats the next. If I did not 
have oats I would feed buckwheat each day 
at noon; at night cracked corn. My birds 
lay well, and are healthy and fat. One- 
third buckwheat with oats has always 
proved a good feed for my horses, I pre¬ 
sume it would be excellent for horses 
ground with corn and oats as follows, 10 
bushels oats, 10 bushels corn on cob, and 
five bushels buckwheat. My opinion is it 
will pay your Delaware reader to feed his 
buckwheat this way. If I had more than I 
wanted to feed, I would have it made into 
flour, and have all the middlings taken 
from it that I could get. It is fine for 
cows or calves’ feed, and the flour generally 
brings more in proportion than the grain. 
I have gained many good points from The 
R. N.-Y., one is I have cut eight good crops 
in two years from the first setting of 
Alfalfa. F. p. B. 
Wawarsing, N. Y. 
If I knew more of the particulars as to 
how much he could get for the whole 
grain, also his facilities for having the 
buckwheat floured, I could answer more 
Intelligently. With us the proposition would 
be easy. Buckwheat flour is worth about 
$2.25 per 100 pounds here. With flour 
at that price I would have the buckwheat 
floured, sell the flour and put enough of 
the money into buckwheat middlings at $1 
per 100 pounds (the price quoted by ques¬ 
tioner) to make the major part of my cow 
ration for the Winter; sell the bran for 
80 cents per 100, take that and enough 
of my flour money to buy grain for the 
poultry, and put the balance in my pocket. 
I would not think of having the buckwheat 
ground with other grain, for at the prices 
quoted you will get about four times the 
feeding value in $1 worth of middlings as 
in $1 worth of flour, so if mixture with 
other grain is necessary use middlings. I 
consider the poultry as getting a very poor 
ration. While a dry mash is all right if 
properly fed (which includes the mixing) 
if chickens are allowed all the corn they 
want even If fed on the cob, they will not 
eat enough of the dry feed to balance. 
Buckwheat may be fed for part of the ra¬ 
tion, but if fed to any great extent it will 
make the yolks light when fed to laying 
hens. This is objectionable if you have a 
good egg trade, and at prices quoted I 
believe it could be exchanged on the market 
for a more satisfactory ration. 
Columbia C'o., N. Y. wm. h. hotaling. 
A CONSUMER'S OBSERVATION ABOUT 
HIS DOLLAT. 
I am much interested the distribution 
of the consumer's dollar between him and 
the producer, because I am one of those 
who pay it. Some facts which I have 
learned from my end may be of value m 
the discussion. Last October I purchased 
a basket of Concord grapes in Dover, N. H., 
for 12 cents. The basket bore the names 
of a grower in Naples, N. Y., a commission 
house in Boston, and a wholesale house in 
Dover. Therefore the basket had been 
shipped from the grower to Boston and 
thence reshipped to the wholesaler in 
Dover, who had delivered it to the pro¬ 
vision dealer from whom I purchased it. 
Out of my 12 cents, there must have been 
two freight charges and three dealers’ pro¬ 
fits withheld before it reached the pro¬ 
ducer. A letter to the grower brought a 
courteous answer, in which it was stated 
that the grapes were sold in Boston for 
nine cents, from which three cents were 
deducted for freight and commission, leav¬ 
ing the grower six cents, out of which 
sum he had paid one and seven-tenths 
cents for the basket in which the grapes 
were packed. It would seem that an eco¬ 
nomy would result if the wholesale house 
in Dover could be in direct relation with 
the grower in Naples, instead of having a 
third party in Boston to require a profit 
for handling. 
Another way in which a toll is taken 
from the consumer’s dollar I have learned 
from a friend who has a huckster's route 
in a suburb of Worcester, Mass. Some of 
his vegetables he grows himself; but much 
of his stock, including all his fruits, he 
buys of the wholesale house. He aims to 
obtain an advance of 20 per cent on his 
purchase price, which means that of the 
consumer’s dollar which he receives, he re¬ 
tains 16 2-3 cents for his labor and risks 
in the delivery of the goods. This may 
seem a large share, but it takes nearly one 
hundred patrons to make the gross sales 
amount to .$25 or $30 per trip. To per¬ 
form this service requires on his part from 
12 to 16 hours in buying stock, preparing 
the load, travel and delivery. He receives 
about five dollars per trip for himself aud 
horse. Since farmers in the same locality 
receive four dollars for a man and team 
for nine hours, the remuneration cannot 
be called excessive. But it is one-sixth 
of the consumer’s dollar which cannot 
reach the producer. Furthermore, it never 
can reach the producer until some less 
expensive method will deliver the goods 
at the consumer’s door in equally as good 
condition and with the same certainty. 
Housewives in this suburb know that thev 
can buy at lower prices in the largp public 
markets in town, but it costs a dime for 
carfare and an hour of time to market in 
person, while delivery is uncertain as well 
as quality, if the order is sent in by tele¬ 
phone. Hence they prefer the huckster, 
who strives to please them by humoring 
their fancies. f. w. m. 
Amherst, Mass. 
IKON ME 
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THEjJPLANT FOOD PROBLEM SOLVED 
BY USERS OF 
Bradley’s Fertilizers 
“The WorlcTs Best By Every Test” 
Sometimes farmers say they cannot afford to use as much 
as 1000 lbs. of fertilizer per acre, yet many farmers have 
.proved that as much or more is very profitable to them. 
How much to use is a problem every one must work out 
for himself. Our most successful customers say they find 
as they have increased from year to year the amount of 
fertilizer used, the easier it has been to pay for it. This is 
the way they express the greater profit derived from using 
1500 to 2000 lbs. per acre instead of a smaller quantity on 
their market crops. 
Many of them use a ton to the acre of Bradley’s High Grade 
Fertilizer and find that it pays in the crop marketed and in the up¬ 
keep or improvement of the land for succeeding crops. You cannot 
tell without experimenting how much fertilizer will pay you best. If 
you have not already solved this problem, begin next season and use 
Bradley’s Fertilizers 
Our local agents have a new descriptive booklet and 
calendar for 1911 for you. If we have no agent near you 
write us today for our agency proposition. Address Depart¬ 
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BRADLEY FERTILIZER WORKS 
OF THE AMERICAN AGRICULTURAL CHEMICAL CO. 
92 State St., 
Boston. 
2 Rector St., 
New York. 
P. 0. Drawer 970, 
Buffalo. 
Rose Building, 
Cleveland. 
Cincinnati Office, 1204 Second National Bank Building. 
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