1068 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
October 10, 
FARMERS’ CLUB 
[ Every query must be accompanied by the 
name and address of the writer to insure 
attention. Before asking z. question, please see 
whether it is not answered in our advertising 
columns. Ask only a few questions at one time. 
Pu' questions on a separate piece of paper. 1 
Asparagus; Strawberries. 
8. II., Orange Co., X. Y. —1. Could you 
advise me what to do with a patch of as¬ 
paragus? Must 1 cut it down and cover 
it up in Winter with manure, or can I 
let it stand the way it is? 2. Is it better 
to cover strawberries that have been 
planted this Fall, and at what time of the 
year is it best to do this? 
Ans.—1. It is generally considered 
good practice to cut the old tops of as¬ 
paragus in the Fall and remove them 
from the bed before the seeds ripen and 
drop to the ground, as the volunteer 
plants are a nuisance, and as a rule 
produce sprouts of inferior quality by 
not being deep enough in the soil. When 
volunteer plants appear they should in 
all cases be treated as weeds and be 
promptly removed with the hoe. The 
Fall treatment of asparagus varies with 
the locality. While asparagus is per¬ 
fectly hardy, and is seldom if ever in¬ 
jured by frost, it is a well-known fact 
that in localities where the ground 
freezes deeply it will start earlier and 
with much greater vigor if given a cov¬ 
ering of three or four inches of leaves 
or rough manure. 
2. Strawberries are greatly benefited 
by a light Winter mulch. Cultivate the 
plants as late as possible and have them 
go into the Winter free from weeds. 
When the ground freezes hard enough 
to bear walking on it, the plants should 
receive a light mulch of coarse straw or 
strawy manure. Care must be observed 
to put on only sufficient to shade the 
ground, as the plants will smother and 
die if covered too heavily. If left un¬ 
protected many plants will be thrown 
out by alternate freezing and thawing, 
and be lost. _ 
Too Strong a Dose. 
II. R., Fairvieuc, X. M .—I sprayed my 
potatoes with arsenate of lead. I used 
about a half pound of lead to a pail of 
water. In about two weeks the leaves on 
the Vines turned brown and died, but the 
stems were alive, and now new leaves are 
coming out on them. Did I get the lead 
too strong, or was it from some other 
cause? 1 read in The R. N.-Y. and sev¬ 
eral other papers that ashes were fine for 
a young orchard. I had a dozen two- 
year-old cherry trees and they were doing 
finely, but thought I would make them do 
extra fine, so I put two shovelfuls of oak 
ashes on each one and then irrigated them, 
and every one of them died. Ashes may 
be good for grown trees, but it will sure 
kill young ones, where you irrigate. 1 
just mention this so you can warn others 
from making the mistake I did. H. u. 
Ans. —Assuming that you used a four- 
gallon pail, this would mean five pounds 
to the barrel. This is too strong and 
would most likely scorch the potato 
vines. The injury, however, would have 
shown before two weeks had it been 
due to the arsenic alone. The experi¬ 
ence with the ashes illustrate a point 
which needs to be repeated again and 
again. Wood ashes contain lime, pot¬ 
ash and phosphoric acid, and when rea¬ 
sonably used all are necessary in plant 
growing. When thus used there is no 
better material for supplying the plant 
food to trees. What is “reasonable”? 
Evenly distributed all over the soil 
around the trees and left for the rain 
to wash the plant food slowly down. 
Now, you can hardly put two shovel¬ 
fuls of ashes around two-year-old trees 
without banking it around the trunks. 
Then you irrigated or turned on the 
water. To understand what happened 
dip a finger into the “lye” from a 
“leach” in which water runs through 
wood ashes. The lime and potash 
make a strong caustic which probably 
ate through the bark and thus killed 
the trees. The ashes should be spread 
evenly out from the trees and worked 
into the soil before the water is turned 
on. 
Saw Dust on Potatoes. 
I. A. II., Allentoirn. Pa .—I had a talk 
on potato culture with a man who used 
three ways of fertilizing, namely, hog ma¬ 
nure, horse manure and the clear sawdust 
put in the potato rows, each one sep¬ 
arately. lie says the best crop he ever 
raised was in the row where he used clear 
sawdust, yielding the most and best tubers. 
Was this a lucky shot, or would it hold 
good any season. Raw sawdust is a great 
deal cheaper than manure. Would you con¬ 
sider giving it a trial and put fertilizer 
along with the sawdust? 
Ans. —The Scriptures say “take heed 
how ye hear!” This, we take it, means 
several things, including the ability to 
discount some things that are told us 
and making the proper application. 
Neither hog manure nor horse manure 
is best for potatoes. Under ordinary 
conditions we should expect a heavy 
^growth of vines and a crop of rather 
scrubby tubers from such manure. The 
sawdust contains very little plant food. 
How then could it give a larger crop ? 
It did not give any such crop but very 
likely it made the conditions which en¬ 
abled the crop to obtain the needed 
water. Some years ago Mr. E. S. Car¬ 
man, formerly editor of The R. N.-Y., 
experimented with what he called the 
trench-mulch system of growing pota¬ 
toes. This consisted of making a deep 
wide furrow or trench with plow or 
spade. The potatoes were planted at the 
bottom and covered lightly with soil. 
Then the furrow or trench was filled 
with cut straw, with soil enough to hold 
it down. The potato plants grew up 
through the cut straw and gave a fine 
yield in seasons when the rainfall was 
not heavy. The straw seemed to hold 
moisture so that the potatoes never suf¬ 
fered from drought though the soil was 
naturally dry. We think it likely the 
sawdust held moisture much as the 
straw did, and that the increased yield 
was due to this fact. This result will 
not always follow. When these trench- 
mulch experiments were reported sev¬ 
eral farmers tried it in large areas, 
using straw in the furrows with soil 
over it. A wet season followed, and the 
straw had too much moisture over the 
potatoes. The crop rotted. 
Protection Against Poison Ivy. 
F. E. G., Xew Baltimore, X. Y .—On page 
974 S. A. C. recommends eating the leaves 
of poison ivy as an antidote for the poi¬ 
soning of the skin by the vine. The poison 
ivy question interests me very much and 
I would like to know if S. A. C. really 
means as his article reads, and if you 
have any knowledge of such a custom or 
if you would advise eating ivy leaves? 
Ans. —I doubt whether the method 
mentioned by the inquirer of securing 
immunity from the poisonous effects of 
Rhus toxicodendron, or poison ivy, can 
be found in any authoritative work on 
toxicology; I do remember, however, 
having seen a statement of thip kind 
made by a Wisconsin physician several 
years ago in one of the well-known 
medical journals, and cannot from my 
own observation or experience disprove 
it. As to recommending a trial of the 
method, I most emphatically do not, for 
while it might prove efficacious with 
certain individuals, the chances are that 
others who are more susceptible to the 
poison would suffer agonies from its 
local effect upon the mouth and tongue 
before the desired protection was 
gained. The active poisonous principle 
of this plant, which, by the way, it 
shares with some 70 other botanical va¬ 
rieties, is a volatile oil, known chem¬ 
ically as a fat acid, and it is the contact 
of this oil with the skin which produces 
the serious inflammation to which sus¬ 
ceptible people are subject. The most 
rational procedure, therefore, is imme¬ 
diate cleansing of the skin with soap 
and water after exposure to the plant, 
with a view to removing the poison be¬ 
fore it can become absorbed. After 
absorption has taken place, however, 
and its effects are apparent, the reme¬ 
dies recommended are numerousi, so 
numerous indeed, as to show that there 
is no one dependable one. Among the 
best of those available in the ordinary 
household are decoctions, or teas, made 
by steeping the twigs of the hemlock, 
or the bark of either White or Black 
oak. Ordinary lime water is also a 
soothing application, and should be ap¬ 
plied, as should the first mentioned de¬ 
coctions, upon soft cloths, laid over the 
inflammed skin. To heal the skin, sub¬ 
sequent applications of oxide of zinc 
ointment, made antiseptic by the addi¬ 
tion of three per cent of carbolic acid, 
is efficacious. This inflammation is, for¬ 
tunately, self limited, and usually sub¬ 
sides after a few days. M. B. D. 
Cutting Late Clover. 
I have a 10-aere piece -of new seeding 
on my Albany County farm that was seeded 
to grass seed about May 1 last, with two 
bushels Rod clover and three bushels Tim¬ 
othy (one-half bushel mixture per acre). 
Clover sod was turned last September 25, 
thoroughly disked, and seeded to rye, then 
seeded with grass seed May 1 as above. 
The clover is about eight inches high at 
the present time and still growing. It 
was heavily fertilized and limed when sown 
to rye. Would you advise me to cut it 
or let it go? If the latter, would it not 
smother out if we happen to have an old- 
fashioned Winter with deep snow 7 ? 
New York. A. B. 
We should clip the field this Fall and 
take off the crop. Reft in the field the 
crop w'ill smother out some of the grass, 
provide a nesting place for field mice, and 
make a lot of trash to clog the mower 
next year—unless it is burned over. 
On page 999 C. E. M. says: “What is 
considered a good yield per vine of grapes 
of the Worden type? From light vines of 
Worden I gathered 340 pounds of grapes 
last year—this year I gathered 600 pounds 
from the same vines.” In answer, F. E. G. 
says that these yields are phenomenal and 
that in commercial vineyards 20 pounds 
per vine for Concords and 25 pounds for 
Worden are usually large yields, while the 
average is about eight or 10 pounds. I 
think F. E. G. is about as far off in his 
figures as is C. E. M. In the Michigan 
grape belt it is not unusual for vineyards 
of Champion grapes to average 90 pounds 
per vine and Concords and Wordens should 
average 40 to 60 pounds. In script the 
letters “e“ and “1“ are similar, and if 
you change C. E. M.’s statement to read 
“from eight vines” you will see that they 
yielded 42 pounds each the first year and 
75 pounds each the next year, or a very 
satisfactory yield. PAUL thayek. 
Ohio. 
Prof. 17. A. Bernthsen. one of the visit¬ 
ing scientists at the recent International 
Congress of Applied Chemistry in this city, 
discussed before the congress the production 
of ammonia directly from its constituent 
gases, the combination of which was ef¬ 
fected two years ago by Professor Haber 
of Berlin. In making this discovery Pro¬ 
fessor Haber also determined a method by 
which it will be possible for nitrogenous 
fertilizing materials to be produced. It 
was through the use of the metal uranium 
that Professor Haber came upon his final 
success and the method which he demon¬ 
strated has proved so satisfactory that a 
factory is now being constructed at Oppau, 
Germany, where pure ammonia will be 
made by the new method. 
“For the Land’s Sake, use Bowker’s 
Fertilizers; they enrich the earth and 
those who till it.”— Adv. 
First-Class FRUIT TREES 
FOB FALL PLANTING. Propagated from 
trees of known merit. True to name. No scale. 
SAMUEL FRASER, Box C, Geneseo, N. V. 
Peach and Apple Trees 
For fall or spring planting. Prices right: stock 
right. .11 VElt & SON, Bridgeville, Delaware 
Seed Potatoes-Northern Grown 
Full of vitality—big yielders and extra fine 
quality. Grown in Conrath Gardens in 
the Rich Virgin Soil of North Wisconsin. 
Choicest Seed Potatoes ever offered. Special 
fall prices. Write at once. 
NORTH WISCONSIN SEED CO., Box 8, CONRATH, WIS. 
Choice Rye 8 Timothy Seed^®?”^ ,,p P n n d 
cation- J. N. MacPhcrson, Pine View Farm, Sco.tsville, N-Y. 
A.lf alf a Hay 
THE WONDERFUL. MILK-PRODUCING FEED. 
BRIDGE & SOUTEil, Pioneer Shippers, Canastota, N. Y. 
APPLE BARRELS—Car Lots or Less 
BOBT. OI I. I.IES MEDINA, N. Y. 
TO KII.I, 
San Jose Scale 
USE 
Bergenport Brand Sulphur 
The best sulphur for Lime Sulphur Solution. 
Combines easily and quickly with lime. Write to 
T. & S. C. WHITE & CO. 
liERGENPOI4T SULPHUR WORKS 
TOO William Street, New York 
“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 
Bollards Worth of Trees 
for every one hundred cents you remit to us. 
PEACH and APPLE TREES 
a specialty. _ CATAL OGUE FREE 
JOS. H. BLACK, SON «S CO. 
HIGHTSTOWN. N. J. 
KELLY’S Direct 
¥ja O Nurseries to Fruit 
1 Jt\ A—< JLv Growers and Planters 
I f iiaranfond We have the endorsement of 
UlUarallLccU our fellow townsmen, in our 
c. J catalog, which is the best recommend- 
Oluray ation any firm can have. It speaks 
_ volumes more than anything we could say. 
T We have no "bargain lots” or prizes to offer 
1 rue —we deal in nothing but good stock. 
■ Write today, it trill bring a catalog to your door. 
a, KELLY BROS., Est. 1887 
Name 6 Main St. Damville, N. Y. 
PEACH] 
and 
APPLE 
2c EACH and UP 
Also all kinds of 
NURSERY STOCK. 
Wholesale prices to planters. 
Write for FREE CATALOGUE. 
TENNESSEE NURSERY COMPANY 
Box 14, Cleveland, Tennessee 
r > 
'"Tl 
BETTER FRUIT TREES 
7- . 
Direct from the grower, at half what you would 
pa y' an agent 200,000 cApple trees, 175.000 Peach 
trees, and Pear, Cherry, Plum, Quince, shade and 
ornamental trees—all large, thrifty, and with fine 
roots, t/411 Dansville grown, where San Jose scale 
has never been been found, We Pay the Freight. 
Free, illustrated Catalogue gives special 
introductory' bargains, for Fall planting 
Write today for Catalogue 1 
BENTON, WILLIAMS (SI DENTON, Dansville, fjew York 
Apple, Peach, Pear Trees 
('ICR nursery stock is raised right—it is the best 
” you can buy. Clean, strong, well-formed 
trees that are vigorous and true to variety—trees 
that will reach maturity—the kind YOU want. 
We also have a fine stock of Dwarf Fruit Trees, 
Careful attention given to shipping and packing. 
Satisfaction guaranteed Prices reasonable 
Write for Illustrated Catalog. 
ARTHUR J. COLLINS, Box R.. Moorestown, N J 
TREES, PLANTS and VINES. 
Beat MoDey Valuoa. Catalog free. 
SMING HILL NURSERIES, 
Box 48 Tippec.noe City, Ohio 
Cl 
750,000 
Apple 1 & 2 Yr. 
GUARANTEED 
850,000 
Cherry 1 & 2 Yr. 
Direct from our Nursery to you at wholesale prices. All propagated from bearing 
orchards. Guaranteed True to Name and Free from Scale; fresh dug. As good as 
money can buy, no matter if you pay th^e ti nes our price. Dealing with us you 
save the agent’s commission. After 28 years experience you may he suro we arb 
equipped with moderu and up-to-date facilities for the accurate and prompt despatch 
of orders. All we ask is a trial order. Personal inspection of our Nurseries is earn, 
estly solicited. 300 Acres. 2 Trees: 1 Elberta Peach, 1 Harvest Apple, Post¬ 
paid 25c. Write to-day for FKKK Illustrated Catalog of Guaranteed True to Name 
^rees. MALONEY BROS. & WELLS CO. 
Dansville's Pioneer Wholesale Nurseries 24 Mai*i St., Dansville, N.Y. 
Plant TreesThis Fa.ll 
BUY DIRECT FROM US AND SAVE 50 TO 75 PER CENT. 
We are growers and guarantee all our trees, true to name and free from disease, or 
money back. 
Write now lor our Large Free Book. “ Good Fruit and How to Grow It.” It tells you what 
to plant, where to plant and how to plant. 
It also contains a true description of all varieties of Fruit and Ornamental Trees, Roses, 
Shrubs. Berries, etc. 
Yon cannot make’a mistake if you have this book to guide you. 
Send for it now and see what a great help it will be to you. 
REILLY BROS. NURSERIES, 120 Reilly Road, Dansville, N. Y. 
i ii 
i ■ ■ 
CORN HUSKING TIME IS HERE! 
WHILE GATHERING THIS HARVEST 
PLAN FOR A BETTER CROP NEXT YEAR 
BY USING 
E. FRANK COE FERTILIZERS 
1857—The Business Farmers’ Favorite for Over Fifty Years—1912 
They Have the Quality That Means Economy 
WE OFFER THE FOLLOWING 
SPECIAL PRIZES AT THE NEW ENGLAND CORN EXPOSITION B38B 
Class A, 1-2-S-4-5-6 .—In this class, if the prize winning corn is grown on E. Frank Coe Fertilizers, 
Pe '•uvian Brands, or Genuine Thomas Phosphate Powder, (Key Tree Brand), either alone or in 
connection with stable manure, The Coe-Mortimer Company will award to the winner an amount 
equal to the’official prize in each case. 
Ask Our Representative at the Exposition for a Copy of “The Corn Song” 
THE COE-MORTIMER CO. 
51 CHAMBERS STREET NEW YORK CITY 
