1912. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
e©9 
Average Yield of Grapes. 
C. E. M., Guinea Mills, Va .—What is 
considered a good yield per vine of grapes 
of the Concord type? From light vines 
of Worden I gathered 340 pounds last year 
and thought it a good crop. This year I 
gathered 600 pounds from same vines! The 
vines are about eight years old. I have 10 
or 12 different varieties, but consider Wor- 
den to be the heaviest bearer. 
Ans.— The yields given in the above 
query are phenomenal and impossible in 
commercial practice, while a possibility 
with few plants. The probabilities are 
that the vines in question will show 
greatly decreased yields in the next few 
years. In commercial vineyards 20 
pounds per vine for Concords and 25 
pounds for Worden are unusually large 
and exceptional yields. The average is 
about eight or 10 pounds. 
F. E. GLADWIN. 
Homemade Hand-Cart. 
I saw a home-made cart, made from 
the two wheels and an old axle of a 
buggy- It was used to wheel three cans 
of milk and feed or fertilizers around 
farm or barn. Fig. 419 shows how it 
was made. ' e. e. l. 
New York. 
Building Low-Headed Trees. 
J. G. W., Connecticut .—I noticed an 
article on page 809, “Building a Low 
Head,” in which I was much interested. I 
have a few old apple trees, planted by my 
father about 60 years ago, and of course 
grown quite high, so it is hard to get the 
fruit. They have been well pruned out, 
but not cut down much. Will the writer 
of article referred to advise whether these 
trees are wortli the trouble to try to bring 
the tops down? They are 30 feet high 
and perhaps more, bodies 12 to 15 inches in 
diameter, good healthy trees, R. I. Green¬ 
ing, Spy, etc. How fast does this sort of 
treatment work out? The tree, Fig. 332, 
looks like a tree 10 or 12 years old. Wlmt 
sort of soil does it stand in? Does kind 
of tree grow much faster than the average 
kinds? 
Ans.— The trees you describe should 
give little if any difficulty in dishorning, 
and are fully worth the trouble, as you 
say they are good varieties and in good 
health. If. the tops are cut back 10 or 
15 feet it will take from two to five 
years for them to get back into bearing, 
as the trees are spending their energy 
in a rush of new wood growth and 
bearing is consequently checked for a 
time. New fruit spurs must develop on 
the new top, but that should take place 
on healthy trees within the period men¬ 
tioned. Fig. 332 is not of a two-year 
tree, but a two-year top on a six-year- 
old trunk, as was mentioned in the arti¬ 
cle. Its rapid growth was due to a 
good healthy stock, good scions and 
good soil coupled with good growing 
weather. The soil is the rich clay loam 
of the Palouse country in Eastern Wash¬ 
ington, being a product of the decom¬ 
position of rock of a lava nature. It is 
very retentive of moisture and trees 
grow very well in such soil when set 
out in favorable exposures. The stock 
of the tree is Jonathan and the top 
Rome Beauty, and I would not say that 
they grow faster than the common run 
of varieties. w. g. brierley. 
Horse Nettle and Dodder. 
O. E. C., Roaring Creek , Pa .—You will 
find a yellow viny weed that I expect was 
in my clover seed. Will it harm the young 
clover, or will it freeze out this Winter? 
What is it? Also another that looks some¬ 
thing like a potato top that I have been 
unable to kill. I have two spots about 
10 feet square. What is it and how can I 
kill it? 
Ans.— The weed appears to be horse 
nettle. It is a persistent weed—killed 
out by cultivation and hoeing. In a 
sod it must be cut out with a spade 
or spud and salt put on the root. The 
other specimen is dodder. Every year 
about this time we have much com¬ 
plaint about this pest. It is a parasite 
or vine growth which grows around 
the clover and Alfalfa plants and 
strangles them. It usually comes in the 
Alfalfa seed—some samples being alive 
with it—and it will spread, if permitted, 
all over the field. It disappears under 
plowing and cultivation, but that is, of 
course, impossible in a permanent mow¬ 
ing field. Under such conditions the j 
best plan is to mow over the spots 
where it appears and burn the cutting. 
Also burn the spot over if possible. 
This will destroy most of the dodder, 
though it may also kill out some of the 
Alfalfa. 
Handling the Squash Crop. 
J. IF. M., Windham, O .—I am raising 
Hubbard squash, and am not certain as to 
best methods of marketing them. I should 
like you to advise me as to best method of 
disposing of them. 
Ans.— Squashes about Boston are 
marketable in a small way in barrels 
(counted 100 pounds), in a larger way 
by the ton weight. Prices range all the 
way from $15 to $60 per ton, and twice 
the latter price has been known. If 
$20 per ton can be realized for them 
from the field or pile outdoors, those 
not having houses for them usually sell. 
Just before frost time we gather our 
squash and pile in a sunny, pro¬ 
tected situation and leave them for 
some weeks, till sold or stored for the 
better prices expected in the Winter. 
Storage houses are shelved, well ven¬ 
tilated and kept at about 40 degrees 
temperature. Not over two layers are 
placed on a shelf, and the squash are 
not to be moved after, till put up for 
the market. Carloads of squash come- 
into Boston from the West, packed in 
bulk, realizing according to their qual¬ 
ity and the market demand. 
E. F. DICKINSON. 
The Winter Nelis Pear. 
W. R., of Pomona, Georgia, asks for in¬ 
formation in regard to the Winter Nelis 
pear, and from Mr. Van Deman secures 
much that is essential, of course. But the 
Nelis behaves differently in different locali¬ 
ties, like most fruits. In the greater part 
of Georgia—especially within a hundred 
miles of the sea—the climatic conditions 
are much the same as they are here on the 
Pacific coast. There is always talk of bet¬ 
ter markets for Winter pears, and with the 
exception of the Crocker Bartlett the Win¬ 
ter Nelis is first thought of with us. It 
does not come into full bearing so very 
young, but it bears steadily thereafter. It 
runs to growth of small wood in anything 
like good soil; needs constant pruning. 
Fruit must be thinned or it is apt to be 
undersized. It is not particularly suscep¬ 
tible to ordinary pear ailments, but the 
fruit does scab very badly. Unless regu¬ 
larly sprayed, the fruit is certain to be- 
x come covered with scab and to be gnarled, 
cracked and worthless. I have seen it do 
this alongside other varieties which re¬ 
mained smooth and clean and almost en¬ 
tirely free from scab. The Winter Nelis 
stands “double working” or top-grafting as 
well as any other pear. Generally speak¬ 
ing, I do not care overmuch for “top¬ 
working.” Even where good unions are 
possible, the heads are not so strong. 
ROBERT S. DOUBLEDAY. 
A Grasshopper Plague. — They are 
having it in Western Kansas this year. 
The second brood is coming in late Sum¬ 
mer. At Garden City the hoppers destroyed 
$1,000 worth of Alfalfa seed, while peach 
orchards and corn fields have been wiped 
out. The best way to kill off this second 
brood is to turn hogs, chickens or turkeys, 
or all three, into infested fields. Build a 
small, portable house for the chickens and 
move it to new locations whenever hop¬ 
pers near it have been caught. If neither 
hogs nor fowls can lie obtained, poison 
bait should be put out for the hoppers. 
Thoroughly mix one pound of Paris green 
and 20 pounds of bran in a wash tub while 
dry, and then make them into a mash by 
the. addition of 3 V* gallons of water in 
which one-half gallon of cheap syrup and 
three finely-chopped oranges or lemons have 
been stirred. Sow this bait broadcast in 
the edges of threatened fields and in ad¬ 
jacent fields where the hoppers are abund¬ 
ant. This bait should be scattered early 
in the morning or late in the evening. It 
is not attractive when dry and must be 
renewed at least every other day. The bait 
is not expensive—the amount just given 
is enough for one application on five acres. 
Habit of Essex Rape. 
Will the true Dwarf Essex rape live and 
furnish pasture longer than one season? 
My observation is that it dies at end of 
first season, but some seedsmen claim the 
true variety is not an annual. M. f. k. 
Romney, Ind. 
With us this rape makes a vigorous 
growth through late Summer and Fall. A 
few plants may live over, but the great ma¬ 
jority are dead by Spring. 
When you write advertisers mention The 
R. N.-Y. and you’ll get a quick reply and a 
“square deal.” See guarantee editorial page. 
An Engine Your Wife 
Can Use 
Kerosene 
or 
Gasoline 
IV/fUCHof the drudgery of the farm falls on 
lyj - your wife and children. You can and 
should change this by ordering a Fairbanks- 
Morse 
Jack Junior Engine 
It will do the washing, cream separating, 
churning, pump water—or better still, oper¬ 
ate a water system—and do it on a pint of 
kerosene or gasoline an hour. You will 
find it a money, time and labor saver for 
your work, too. Use it to grind feed, grind 
tools, shell corn, chop hay or fodder, spray. 
The Jack Junior is a simple, 1 H. P., four 
cycle engine that you can always depend 
upon to do exactlv what we say it will. 
Catalog No. FA 698 illustrates a practical 
farm engine equipment and describes our com¬ 
plete line of Farm Engines, Water Systems, 
Electric Light Outfits, Saw Frames, Grind¬ 
ers, Sheilers, Supplies, etc. Write for copy. 
Fairbanks, Morse & Co. 
New York Cleveland Chicago 
5" 3nd Gasoline Engines, Oil Tractors, Pumps, Wafer 
Systems, Electric Light Plants, Wind Mills, Feed Grinders. 
[ GALVANIZED ROOFING^ 
{> A 21 Per Square 
O at Pel. Your Stat ion I 
' In 9X\n Tntia 
ij 
Corrugated AASI Per Square 
or ^ A Del. Your State 
V Crimp In 20c. Zone 
Ask for new Prico List 09. 
[ GRIFFIN LUMBER CO. HT™ “ l “ 
Box 12 
A Simple Burn HouseMachine 
That Works For The 
Women Folks 
11 
s 
Why Not Put This One Small Machine In the When Father Has a Dozen Or More 
Farm Home-To Make Mother’s Work Easy? Bigger Ones to Lighten His Labors . 
Why not present Mother with a 
“Pilot Country Home Carbide Ma¬ 
chine?” A machine that will cut 
the good woman’s work in half and 
make the old farm house a better 
place to-live in. 
Father has his riding plows, culti¬ 
vators, binders, mowers, corn cut¬ 
ters and manure spreaders—he needs 
them all to make the farm pay—in¬ 
cidentally they make farm work 
twice as easy as it was a generation 
ago. 
In the meantime the woman’s end 
of it—the house work—is every bit 
as hard as it ever was. It is cer¬ 
tainly mother’s turn. She is clearly 
entitled to anything in the way of 
machine help to lighten her labors 
as much as one of these little gas 
plants will. 
With less than fifteen minutes’ at¬ 
tention once a month one of these 
Pilot machines will provide all the 
gas necessary for light and fuel in 
a big house. And in every such 
home the housewife will be forever 
relieved from the trouble and labor 
of handling coal, fire-wood, ashes, 
kerosene and greasy, smelly oil 
lamps. 
Already over two hundred thou¬ 
sand farmers’ wives are enjoying 
this wonderful convenience. For 
fully that many Carbide machines 
have been sold and installed in farm 
homes to date. 
We ship with these Pilot light 
and fuel plants, the light chan¬ 
deliers and the gas cooking range, 
all ready to set up. And this outfit 
can be installed in three days with¬ 
out injuring walls or floors. 
The Pilot machine will set in 
your basement or an out-building. 
The iron pipes will run inside your 
walls just as in all city houses. The 
chandeliers, in brass or bronze, you 
can select from a catalogue of a 
hundred beautiful designs. 
The lights you can have fixed to 
light up without matches—by simply 
pulling a chain that hangs from the 
burners in every room, barn, shed 
and out-building. 
Every light will be as white and 
brilliant as sunlight itself. So clear 
and soft that it is often referred to 
by scientific writers as “Artificial 
Sunlight.” No other light will add 
half so much to the beauty of a 
room. And no other light can equal 
it for reading purposes. 
The cooking range will be just 
like the “Gas Ranges” used in mil¬ 
lions of city kitchens. The ever- 
ready fire can be turned on or off 
with a thumb screw. Like the city 
gas range this Carbide Gas Range 
insures a cool kitchen in hot weath¬ 
er and cuts the work of cooking 
meals in half at all seasons of the 
year. 
If you will write and ask us for it, 
we will be glad to send you our free 
wonder book. 
It tells about the magical gas pro¬ 
ducing stone, “Union Carbide”—how 
the Pilot machine releases the gas 
from this stone automatically—just 
the amount you use, no more, no 
less. It tells why the Union Car¬ 
bide can’t burn or explode. It tells 
why it can be kept for years. It tells 
how the light can be used in barns 
and other farm buildings. It tells 
why it is better than electricity and 
cheaper than kerosene. It tells why 
it is not poisonous to breathe. It 
tells why insurance authorities pro¬ 
nounce it the safest of all available 
illuminants for country homes. It 
tells what sized and priced machines 
different sized farms use. 
• All these facts are explained in the 
book in a manner that will make it 
perfectly clear why this HOME 
MADE GAS is now used by over 
two hundred thousand farm families. 
Send us your address NOW, be¬ 
fore you forget it, and we will mail 
you the book and full particulars 
promptly. 
Just write to THE OXWELD 
ACETYLENE CO., Peoples Gas 
Bldg., Michigan Blvd., Chicago, Ill. 
