34 
Non-bearing McIntosh Tree. 
M. M. II., Baldwinsvillc, N. Y .—I have 
two McIntosh apple trees 10 years old. 
One has borne for three years; this year 
had 12 bushels of fine apples. The other 
tree has never borne an apple, and never 
has had any blossom. What is the trouble? 
Ans. —Perhaps the tree that does not 
bear is not McIntosh. It may be some 
very tardy bearer or a seedling. In 
any case I would top-graft it with 
scions from the other tree that does 
bear, and make sure of it, unless some 
other good kind would be more desir¬ 
able. H. E. VAN DEMAN. 
THE RURAb NEW-YORKER 
Tomato Figs. 
The following is taken from an ad¬ 
vertisement now appearing in the farm 
papers: 
TOMATO FIGS. 
A beautiful and valuable novelty much 
used for making figs. Plant grows in bush 
form, literally covered with fruit. The 
skin and flesh are a rich golden yellow, 
solid, thick-meated, with a pleasant flavor. 
When canned or dried in sugar, like figs, 
make excellent pies or tarts for Winter use. 
Without doubt this refers to the com¬ 
mon Yellow Pear tomato, practically 
naturalized and extremely abundant 
through all the Southern States. It is 
found in every country garden about 
Washington, and often volunteers pro¬ 
fusely about compost heaps, as the seeds 
endure considerable freezing in the soil 
without losing the power to germinate 
at the approach of Spring. It is used 
mainly for preserves, and can be sugared j 
and dried into a tolerable imitation of | 
a cured fig. As “tomato” is twice used 
in the wording of the advertisement, the 
latter can scarcely be called a fake, but 
it is certainly misleading, as the yellow 
Pear or Fig tomato, far from being a 
novelty, is one of the oldest kinds in ; 
cultivation. 
Lime to Kill Peach Borers. s 
I have been thinking that a small shovel¬ 
ful of lime placed around the trunk of | 
peach trees after the dirt is dug from them, 
would help to head off the borers by killing 
them. I have never heard of it, but I 
don’t think a borer could live where stone 
lime is slaking. Might it injure the tree, 
nnd the last state be worse than the first? 
Delaware. c. c. h. 
The theory of fresh lime serving as a 
destroyer or preventive of peach tree borers 
if applied about the base of the trees may 
be very good, but I seriously doubt its 
efficiency, although I have never seen it 
tried. If much of it was allowed to slake 
next the tree it would generate enough 
heat to scald the bark. Unleachod wood 
ashes would be far more likely to affect 
the borers in the trees, but this is doubtful 
because the borers are well hidden in their 
burrows and not easy to be reached by any 
liquid or other material from the outside. 
The sure way to destroy these enemies of 
the peach tree is to dig them out with a 
sharp pointed knife. If any sort of outside 
remedy is tried there would be some de¬ 
pendence placed in it. and the mischief 
might go on just the same. I would not 
risk anything of the kind. 
H. K. VAX DEMAX. 
Cheap Nursery Stock. 
A traveling salesman for a certain nur¬ 
sery company of Rochester, N. Y.. recently 
told me that none of the firms advertising 
cheap fruit trees direct to farmers raise 
any trees nor have anything except culls 
bought from reliable firms. Is that so? 
Do you advise people to buy that class of 
goods ? F. b. 
Rcpton, Yt. 
No to both questions. Most of the firms 
grow some of their stock and buy the rest 
where they can. Some of it is grown on 
contract. It is true that some of the 
eheap-john houses do lay in culls and trash 
to sell it cheap. I)o not deal with such i 
bouses and never buy cheap trees. You 
could not make a poorer start with an 
orchard. Go to reliable dealers and pay a 
lair price for high grade trees. 
Wood for Greenhouse Heater. 
I have heated a 20-foot greenhouse (hot 
water system! with four-foot tamarack and 
fir (soft wood). I had a furnace man 
make a six-foot horizontal furnace of sheet 
steel with good-sized door. Such furnace 
when filled at bed time with our softer 
wood kept fire all night. In extreme 
weather perhaps L. G., page 1093. ought 
to stay up a little later and renew fire at 
11 or 12 o'clock. If he would cover furnace 
with brick or concrete he would save money, 
fire less often, and get more heat. We are 
now heating our house and using green cut 
fir (starting with dry wood in mornings!. 
Make no mistake of cutting too fine, as it 
burns out too quickly. 
Washington. hf.xry grixxell. 
Building a Cistern. 
I will give II. L. D.. page 1112, my ex¬ 
perience on building a cistern. I have 
two Gx8x8 feet; one I built 12 years ago, 
the other seven years ago. I made a light 
frame six feet eight inches by eight feet 
eight inches and laid it on the ground 
where I wanted my cistern, digging out the 
mud so the frame went down as deep as 
I wanted the cistern; then made four 
frames of 2x4's so the boards go on the 
outside of frames and leave a four-inch 
space all around for concrete. I then 
mixed one of cement, four sand, five gravel, 
make it sloppy or thin ; put it in - and ram¬ 
med well next to boards to give a good 
smooth wall. Be sure to work it down 
well. I covered mine over the top with 
six inches of concrete reinforced with No. 
9 woven wire fencing. I have had horses 
walk over it. After it is set dig down 
around the outside below the frost line and 
fill with ashes to prevent heaving the top 
up and cracking cistern. a. m. m. • 
Mercer Co.. Pa. 
not jerk the machinery. I prefer a crossed 
belt where it can be used, not only be¬ 
cause it gives greater friction on the 
pulleys, but because it leaves a place for 
the slack to sag so the belts will not flop 
and rub together. e. c. s. 
Pennsylvania. 
The advantage the long belt has over 
the short belt is that the long belt having 
more “stretch” or “give” acts as a cushion 
or buffer between the power and the ma¬ 
chine. Also when a long belt is used the 
weight of the belt causes it to sag and to 
keep an even tension on the pulleys. A 
short or long belt must have equal ten¬ 
sion to do a given amount of work. A 
Straight belt is preferable, though a crossed 
belt may be used to change direction of 
motion. Twisting of belts is done to keep 
long belts from flopping when the pull is 
not steady. It is a makeshift that requires 
more power and wears the belt rapidly. 
W. E. DUCK WALL. 
Ohio. 
Long or Short Belt. 
Regarding inquiry for long or short belt, 
will say emphatically long, especially where 
a gas or oil engine is used. When the 
engine makes its power stroke or impulse 
it jerks the belt to quite an extent, and 
should the belt be short and tight it would 
cause undue wear upon the belt and ma¬ 
chinery, whereas with a long belt the motor 
will draw upon the slack of the belt and 
We have had a very pleasant Winter so 
far, although November beat all records for 
low temperature. We had 18% degress 
one night. I was much surprised to find 
that the cold, coming so early, did not 
injure our variety field of cactus. 07 
course we bad our tender varieties safe in 
the greenhouse. You will probably he in¬ 
terested to know that Dr. Griffiths has 
started a hunch of 13 milk cows on an 
exclusive roughage diet of prickly pear. 
The experiment is being carried on at 
Brownsville, and is to last two years. 
The cows will he fed grain, but no roughage 
except pear. We expect to show that 
enough pear can be grown on one acre 
for two cows. w. S. 
San Antonio, Texas. 
January 13, 
“BLACK’S QUALITY” 
FRUIT TREES 
NONE BETTER 
None Give Better Returns when They Fruit 
Buy Direct From the Nursery 
and save agent’s discounts and middleman's 
profits. When you buy our trees you get a 
Dollar’s Worth of Trees 
for every one hundred cents you remit to us. 
PEACH and APPLE TREES 
a specialty. CATALOGUE FREE 
JOS. H. BLACK, SON CO. 
HIGHTSTOWN. N. J. 
LIVINGSTON’S QCFnQ 
“TRUE BLUE” ULiLL/|J 
Help to make better gardens. They re- 
ward Planter s efforts with tasty vegetables 
and charming flowers. Work in the garden 
becomes a pleasure through results 
obtained with our selected strains. 
5 FINE VEGETABLES 10c 
Their qualities are pro Yen every year 
“ in our gardens. Beet, Corn, Let¬ 
tuce, Radish, Melon, large pack¬ 
ets of superb sorts,prepaid. 
Delivered at 
door. 
Catalog 
Contains 130 pages, 300 
pictures from photographs, 
colored plate and many help, 
rul cultural directions. Offers 
quality seeds at fair prices. 
Write for your free copy today. 
THE LIVINGSTON SEED CO. 
457 High SI. Columbus, Ohio 
Two Important Lessons From 
The Coe-Mortimer Company Five-Hundred Dollar Prize Corn Contest 
for the 
Most Profitable Acre of Field Corn Raised in New England During 1911 
The Coe ' Mortimer $500.00 Corn Contest for 1911 was handled by the Massachusetts Corn Show, Incorporated. The 
following were the Premium Committee who had direct charge of the competition and of the awarding of the prizes : 
„ , PROF. WM. D. HURD MR. GLEN C. SEVEY . MR. E H NAYLOR 
Massachusetts Agricultural College. Amherst, Mass. Editor New England Homestead, Springfield. Mass. Secretary of the Board of Trade, Springfield, Mass 
The; Record* of Competitors and all plans for the competition were prepared by this committee and approved by the 
State Experiment Station Director, in which the competitors for the prize resided. 
At the request of the Committee of the Massachusetts Corn Show, the $500.00 was divided into three prizes, as follows : 
FIRST PRIZE, $250.00 SECOND PRIZE, $150.00 THIRD PRIZE, $100.00 
A UNIQUE FEATURE of this competition was that Home Mixtures of Fertilizer Materials or Stable Manure could be 
used instead of or with Commercial Fertilizers; no restrictions of any sort being imposed. Further it was provided that no 
officer or stockholder of The Coe-Mortimer Company or any other Fertilizer company should have anything to do with the 
keeping of the records or with the awarding of the prizes. 
Fifty-seven competitors from all over New England entered. 
Only thirteen finished, the large number dropping out undoubt¬ 
edly being due to the early frosts. 
Values for Corn, Cob and Stover were affixed by the 
above mentioned Committee as follows: 
Shelled Corn (12% Moisture).$ .75 per bushel 
Cob (12% Moisture). 7.00 per ton 
Stover (40% Moisture). 8.00 per ton 
RESULTS OF THE COMPETITION 
THE FIRST PRIZE was won by Mr. L. S. White of Collinsville) 
Conn., showing a NET PROFIT on his acre of Corn of $65.75. 
THE SECOND PRIZE was won by Mr. M. H. Williams of 
Sunderland, Mass., who showed a NET PROFIT on his acre of 
Corn of $49.26. 
THE THIRD PRIZE was won by Mr. M. H. Clark of Sunderland, 
Mass., who showed a NET PROFIT on his acre of Corn of $43.23. 
The Following Table shows the net profit and value of Corn, Cob and Stover, together with cost of production, of six of 
the leading competitors. This table is well worth your long and careful study:— 
Net Prefits ef Six Corn Crops. —Cee-Mortimer Competition for Most Profitable Acre of Corn in New England 
Grower 
Variety 
Bushels 
of Corn 
Shelled 
Pounds of 
Cob 
Pounds of 
Stover 
Value of 
Corn 
Value of 
Stover 
Value of 
Cob 
Prepar¬ 
ing 
Land 
Seed 
and 
Planting 
Manure 
and 
Fertilizer 
Residual 
Fertility 
Caring 
for 
Crop 
Harvest¬ 
ing and 
Husking 
Net 
Profit 
1. L. S. White. 
2. M. H. Williams... 
3. M. H. Clark. 
4. E. & H. W. Moore 
6. L. W. Peet. 
Flint 
Dent 
Dent 
Flint 
Flint 
Flint 
97.90 
90.10 
58.33 
59.44 
55.37 
62.51 
1111.89 
1361.41 
602.14 
643.63 
750.20 
869.09 
7733.9 
7067.62 
7026.42 
6371.89 
4124.85 
2348.82 
$73.43 
67.58 
43.75 
44.58 
41.35 
46.88 
$30.93 
28.27 
28.11 
25.49 
16.50 
9.40 
, 
$3.89 
4.76 
2.11 
2.25 
2.63 
3.04 
$4.00 
2.25 
2.50 
5.75 
5.675 
3.00 
$1.30 
1.18 
1.31 
1.65 
2.08 
1.32 
$18.10 
27.80 
5.075 
23.80 
19.10 
0.00 
$0.00 
7.75 
7.50 
0.00 
7.20 
0.00 
$2.90 
3.00 
2.44 
4.62 
5.125 
5.69 
$16.20 
9.37 
11.925 
17.43 
8-00 
16.48 
$65.75 
49.26 
43.23 
19.17 
13.49 
32.83 
THE FIRST OF THE TWO GREAT TRUTHS 
Proven by this Prize Contest is that in a wide open competition where High Grade Commercial Fertilizers, Home Mixtures 
and Stable Manure may compete freely, the 
Largest Crops Are Produced by the Use of High Grade Commercial Fertilizers Alone 
Mr. L. S. White, the winner of the First Prize used 1,000 lbs. per acre of High Grade Commercial Fertilizer, testing about5-8-8. 
Mr. M. H. Williams, the winner of the Second Prize, used 1,000 lbs. per acre of a similar High Grade Commercial Fertilizer, but 
in addition used 360 lbs. per acre of a Home Mixture of Cottonseed Meal and Muriate of Potash. The returns show the use of 
this mixture gave no corresponding increase in the crop, but only increased the cost of raising the Corn. 
The winner of the Third Prize, Mr. M. H. Clark, used only 325 lbs. per acre of High Grade Commercial Fertilizer in 1911, but 
had previously for three successive years applied a ton to the acre of High Grade Commercial Fertilizer to this land. Thus it is 
plain that Mr. Clark’s profitable crop of Corn was clearly due to the use of large quantities of Commercial Fertilizer. 
THE SECOND GREAT TRUTH 
Clearly proven by this contest is that 
Heavy Applications of High Grade Commercial Fertilizer not only raise the Largest Crops of 
Corn per acre, but also raise the Most Profitable Crops 
Note what is said above concerning quantities of fertilizer used and then study the table. You will then see clearly how this 
works out. 
Your Corn Crop for 1912 Will Need Fertilizer—-Now Is the Time to Provide for It by Ordering a Good Supply of 
,857 E. FRANK COE’S FERTILIZERS , 9,2 
(Standard of Excellence for Over Fifty Years) 
Our Annual Fertilizer Booklet, and Handsome Calendar for 1912, will be sent free of charge while the supply lasts if you mention The Rural New - Yorker 
THE COE-MORTIMER COMPANY 
51 CHAMBERS 
STREET 
NEW YORK CITY 
