1011. 
the; rural nkw-yokkek 
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What Ails the Cauliflower Seed ? 
V. J. 11’., Adams, N. Y .—Why should my 
cauliflowers act as they do? I set the 
plants in June; they have grown nicely 
and as soon as the head started I tied up 
the leaves as usual, but instead of forming 
a solid head they began to grow tall and 
prongy and the leaves started up through 
the head, and they all branched out, some 
a foot high. 
Ans. —One can seldom form a cor¬ 
rect opinion in regard to the action of 
any plant unless he is familiar with all 
the conditions under which it has been 
grown, and the conditions under which 
the seed was produced. You do not 
say where the seed came from; that is, 
not what dealer sold them, but what 
climate they were grown in. I was 
hoping years ago that our north Pacific 
coast growers would succeed in produc¬ 
ing as good cauliflower seed as the 
Danes. When they first began to grow 
cauliflower seed on the Pacific coast a 
grower in Washington sent .me some 
seed that made as good heads as any 
of the Danish seed, but of late years 
there seems to be some difficulty in 
getting good seed of American growth. 
Whether it is the fault of the method 
of growing them or the effect of climate 
I cannot say, but I no longer risk cauli¬ 
flower seed unless I know that it is the 
best Denmark seed. S'aving seed from 
plants that do not form a solid and 
compact head of bloom, but from tall 
branching heads, would in all probabil¬ 
ity lead to the making of just such 
heads as you have had. It takes a great 
deal of rogueing out of any plant to 
produce the best seed, and this is a 
costly operation, reducing the bulk of 
the crop, and often growers who aim 
rather to undersell competitors than to 
produce a first-class article will not do 
this careful rogueing. The remedy is 
to avoid low-priced seed of any sort, and 
deal only with firms that have made a 
reputation for the best, and who value 
that reputation too much to deal in low- 
priced seed. If you had good seed, the 
difficulty may have been caused by the 
peculiar season, the plants having been 
checked by drought, and suddenly 
started into fresh growth by rains. This 
might cause the trouble with the best of 
seed. But even in this uncommonly dry 
and hot Summer I have seen some fairly 
good cauliflowers grown here and 
headed in August from Danish seed, a 
feat that I never expected to see this 
far south in late Summer. 
Maryland. w. F. massey. 
Use of Sea Waste. 
I note what you say on page 798 about 
rockweed. We have some of the weeds 
here, but not anything like they have in 
Texas on the Gulf Coast. If it has the 
fertilizer in it you say it has it ought to 
pay to pile it up witli a hay rake and 
then haul it with a team. I want to use 
it on potatoes. IIow should I use it, 
under or on top of potatoes, mix it in 
witli fertilizer? Would it be all right to 
use it as a mulching around trees? 
Florida. j. a. z. 
This sea waste varies in composition. 
Along the upper Atlantic coast it is quite 
freely used up to 10 or 15 miles inland. 
There it is handled much like coarse 
manure and spread on meadows or plowed 
under. Seaweed or eel grass is hard and 
tough and does not decay readily. Kelp 
and rockweed decay faster and can be used 
in a compost with manure, muck, sods, etc. 
We should plow the coarse sea waste un¬ 
der, hut scatter the finely decomposed 
rockweed and harrow it in. 
Cover Crop for Peach Orchard. 
I have an orchard of 500 peach trees, 
set last Spring, that I expect to seed to 
a mixture of wheat, Winter vetch and 
Crimson clover about September i for a 
cover crop to be plowed under next Spring. 
Can I succeed in plowing under this green 
crop next April if ground is entirely cov¬ 
ered or would I better leave a strip un- 
seeded, say four feet along each row of 
trees ? Hand digging is too expensive. 
What is the practice of the best growers 
along this line? I. m. 
I’hillipsburg, N. J. 
Vos, go ahead and sow the crop all over. 
A good plowman can get up to the trees. 
In some cases we make two plowings, one 
early taking a strip on each side of the 
rows. This puts part of the cover crop 
under while it is small. The middle thus 
makes a larger crop and this can be plowed 
under when full grown. 
Knife for Thinning Corn. —I note on 
page 897 a knife for thinning corn. I 
have used a similar knife for 80 years or 
more for trimming raspberries and black¬ 
berries. I find a notch ground into the 
cutting edge close to the handle, about 
one-lialf inch in diameter, and the edge 
made sharp makes it a much more service¬ 
able tool. It can be inserted in clumps 
where no other cutting tool can be put, 
and after the stalk is cut the loose brush 
can be pulled out without the use of the 
hands directly, a great advantage iu hand¬ 
ling dead blackberry canes. c. P. A. 
Connecticut. 
Iron Lined Chimney. —I am now having 
much trouble with one chimney. It is 
located in an exposed position to the west 
wind, and requires rebuilding every year 
or two, as the mortar crumbles out and 
spoils the draught. It requires about 25 
feet of pipe from the stove, and creosote 
gives some trouble. Have any of your 
readers had any experience in lining chim¬ 
ney with roofing steel, or would there be 
any objection to putting in the steel and 
building chimney around it from the roof 
up? If anyone has had experience of this 
kind I should like to hear from him. * 
Franklin, Vt. a. s. h. 
Poison Ivy.—A number of years ago, in 
taking away a fence along the roadside, I 
had occasion to destroy a patch of ivy three 
or four rods long by 10 feet in width. I 
found when plowing a mass of roots three 
to four inches deep and occupying the soil 
like quack grass. I cultivated thoroughly 
until about July 1, planting to late sweet 
corn, enabling me to work the ground late 
in the season. This course was followed 
for three years, when I set a row of 
apple trees in the fence line. They are 
now in bearing, and each season I look 
that ground over carefully and most alwavs 
find a few sprouts to dig out. I can scarcely 
believe that cutting off each year will de¬ 
stroy it. as. we never allow weeds of any 
kind to grow along the fences, cutting 
them every year, and ivy with the rest, but 
it seems to thrive under the knife. Last 
year we suffered a severe drought and pas¬ 
tures were bare of everything to the ground. 
A few days ago I looked carefully for ivy 
where my sheep were last year. ‘ I found 
it still there, but small, owing as much 
to a worse drought this Summer. As to 
any ill effect from pasturing, possibly sheep 
would kill it, if they had access to it every 
year during the whole growing season, as 
they will leave grass to feed upon it. I 
cannot understand how it spreads to distant 
places so rapidly, as I find new places 
every year and it worries me, as so many 
are poisoned. A neighbor has suffered from 
it from April until the present time. My 
son and myself are both immune, handling 
it as we would any weed. Cheap salt or 
gas lime, put on small patches in sufficient 
quantities to destroy vegetation, would be 
about as safe for most people. j. s. w. 
I find poison ivy is best destroyed by 
spraying with kerosene thoroughly and 
then burning. In this section the plant 
thrives best along old stone walls and many 
of the roots are beneath the walls, and 
cannot be easily reached. Give the oil a 
little time to penetrate the wall and the 
kerosene fire treatment will be found ef¬ 
fective. m 
When you write advertisers mention The 
R. N.-Y. and you'll get a quick reply and a 
“square deal.” See guarantee editorial page. 
A HIT 
What She Gained by Trying Again.' 
A failure at first makes us esteem final 
success. 
A family in Minnesota that now en¬ 
joys Postum would never have ‘known 
how good it fe if the mother had been 
discouraged by the failure of her first 
attempt to prepare it. Her sort tells 
the story: 
“We had never used Postum till last 
spring when father brought home a 
package one evening just to try it. We 
had heard from our neighbors, and in 
fact every one who used it, how well 
they liked it. 
“Well, the next morning Mother 
brewed it about five minutes, just as 
she had been in the habit of doing with 
coffee without paying special attention 
to the directions printed on the package. 
It looked weak and didn’t have a very 
promising color, but nevertheless father 
raised his cup with an air of expectancy. 
It certainly did give him a great sur¬ 
prise, but I’m afraid it wasn’t a very 
pleasant one, for he put down his cup 
with a look of disgust. 
“Mother wasn’t discouraged though, 
and next morning gave it another trial, 
letting it stand on the stove till boiling 
began and then letting it boil for fifteen 
or twenty minutes, and this time we 
were all so pleased with it that we have 
used it ever since. 
“Father was a confirmed dyspeptic and 
a cup of coffee was to him like poison. So 
he never drinks it any more, but drinks 
Postum regularly. He isn’t troubled 
with dyspepsia now and is actually 
growing fat, and I’m sure Postum is the 
cause of it. All the children are allowed 
to drink it and they are perfect pictures 
of health.” Name given by Postum 
Co., Battle Creek, Mich. 
Read the little book, “The Road to 
Wellville,” in pkgs. “There’s a reason.” 
Ever read the above letter ? A new one 
appears from time to time. They are genu¬ 
ine, true, and full of human interest. 
For Country Homes 
Cooking Fuel and Illuminating Gas 
Made at Home with a 
Little Machine 
Like This 
A BOUT once a month this ma¬ 
chine must be refilled with 
gas-producing stone and 
wound up like a clock. 
When obediently it stands idle 
until you start to cook or turn on 
the lights. 
Then, with no attention 
whatever, it gets busy and 
makes gas automatically— 
just enough to keep your 
stove and your lights go¬ 
ing. 
The stone, known com¬ 
mercially as “UNION 
CARBIDE,’’ gives up its 
gas when the machine 
drops a few lumps into 
plain water—a little at a 
time as the gas is wanted. 
The gas is genuine 
Acetylene. Burned in 
handsome chandeliers it 
gives a flood of brilliant 
pure white light. 
Burned in the kitchen range, it makes 
a hot blue fire that can be instantly 
turned up or down, on or off. 
For both cooking and lighting it is 
used exactly as city gas is used by 
over twenty million city people. 
As a fuel, it flows right into your 
stove without handling and burns with¬ 
out soot or ashes. 
As a light, its white, sunlike beauty 
is unrivaled. Reflected from handsome 
globes suspended from brass or bronze 
chandeliers, it supplies the up-to-date 
city-like appearance of refinement and 
elegance which the average country 
home lacks. 
Moreover, it is not poisonous to 
breathe, and the flame is so stiff the 
wind can’t blow it out. 
The UNION CARBIDE you dump in 
the machine once a month won’t burn 
and can’t explode. 
In a nutshell, one of these gas ma¬ 
chines installed in the cellar or an out¬ 
building of a country home solves the 
lighting and cooling problems for 
all time. 
And they are so easy to install in 
any home without injuring walls or 
carpets that there are now over 
180,000 Acetylene Gas Machines in 
actual use. 
We manufacture and our 
agents arrange for install¬ 
ing thousands of them 
every month in all parts of 
the world. 
There are, of course, 
many crude imitations of 
our machine on the market, 
but the genuine is easily 
distinguished by its name 
and our trademark 
“Pilot" 
Acetylene 
Generators 
On the first return 
mail we will send you 
free literature telling how Cornell 
l Diversity has been growing plants by 
our light—why oculists recommend it 
for eye-strain—why the Insurance 
Engineers pronounced it much safer 
than kerosene—how the lights can be 
placed in barns and outbuildings—how 
they, can be equipped to light up with¬ 
out matches—and how the gas range 
shortens kitchen hours and makes cook¬ 
ing a pleasure. 
With these booklets telling all this 
wonder story, we will send figures show¬ 
ing how little a “PILOT ’’ lighting 
and cooking equipment will cost in your 
case. 
Just write us how many rooms and 
buildings you have to light and where 
you are located. Address vour letter to 
the ACETYLENE APPARATUS 
MFG. CO—People’s Gas Building, 
Michigan Blvd., Chicago, Ill. 
Astounding Profits IVIade by 
Owners of New Hay Press 
The New Sandwich Motor Press—a 
combination All-Steel Hay Press and 
Gasoline Engine- 
makes hay baling a most 
profitable business. 
Pays $10 a day profit on 
a few hundred dollars 
invested. Demands no 
previous experience; does not take you Bales 3/4 Ton* 
away from your home county; leaves you HOUR 
free to do what you please during the rer r *'“ 
spring and early summer months! It’s worth something, too, to be one’s own boss. 
Sandwich Ail-Steel Motor Press 
The secret of big profits in hay baling is 
big tonnage. In the Sandwich Motor Press 
you get a high-class, big-capacity outfit, yet it 
is low-priced. 
It is complete and compact. Easy to move, 
always ready for work—no setting up engine. 
Chain drive. No belts to adjust, or lose 
power. Easy to start or stop press instantly. 
Substantial construction. Steel press— axles, 
wheels and platforms reinforced throughout. 
7 H. P. hopper-cooled engine. Tank under¬ 
neath. Equipped with batteries and mag¬ 
neto, combination seat, battery and tool box, 
and standard gasoline pump. If you have 
an engine, buy press alone. Any stand¬ 
ard hopper-cooled engine can be used. 
The Sandwich All-Steel Motor Press bales 
2Vi to 314 tons per hour. Has self-feeder 
equipment. Takes double charge of hay. 
Has no condenser box—needs no foot tamp¬ 
ing—feeds direct from fork. No balance 
wheels, no high-speed machinery. Fast, 
simple, strong, light of draft. 
We make presses with or without engines 
—wood frame and steel frame—horse power 
and engine power—in all sizes up to tive-ton 
per hour capacity. Prices reasonable. 
Drop us a line today for new book about 
the Astounding Profits in Hay Baling. Let 
us tell you more about the wonderful Sand¬ 
wich Motor Press. (.45) 
SANDWICH MFG. CO., 469 Spruce St., Sandwich, III. 
