1913 . 
THE RURAb NEW-YORKER 
386 
Vinegar Turna Black. 
C. L. A., Gypsum, O .—I should like to 
ask what I could do with a barrel of 
vinegar, into which a bit from an auger 
has fallen? It was a new hit, well nic¬ 
keled and has been in it for some little 
time. The vinegar when drawn out in a 
glass cruet looks clear and good, but when it 
has stood a day or so, becomes filled with 
spongy particles, most of which settles. 
Later the vinegar turns black. How can 
this be remedied? Would charcoal or 
running vinegar over corn cobs, clarify it? 
Is it fit for use? 
Ans. —Metal containers, faucets or 
other utensils should never be used for 
vinegar, and extreme care taken that 
no metal is dropped and left in a vine¬ 
gar barrel. A large nail will often 
blacken a whole barrel of vinegar. With¬ 
out a professional’s knowledge of the 
chemical or corrosive action of iron 
and vinegar. I do not think such 
vinegar is injurious to use, but of 
course it is not salable and not agree¬ 
able for table use. It is probable that 
filtering through charcoal will bleach 
the vinegar, and I am advised that 
animal charcoal is probably preferable 
to wood charcoal. Even if successful, 
I doubt if it would be profitable, con¬ 
sidering the time and the expense of the 
material. 
Vinegar should be racked off previous 
to moving so as to prevent the sediment 
and particles of “mother” mixing with 
the body of the vinegar and making 
it roily. This may be done with a 
faucet or a hose as a syphon if it has 
been stored, as it should be, at some 
height from the floor. If it does not 
then clear, it may be filtered through 
beech shavings or corncobs- If the in¬ 
quirer has other vinegar which is light 
colored, and the barrel in question is 
not too black, it is possible that it may 
be mixed together. As suggested in 
an article in a previous issue, page 99, 
it is always well for the novice in these 
matters to experiment with small quan¬ 
tities before venturing on a large 
amount. Try a small quantity in fruit 
cans, noting the proportionate amount 
of the blackened vinegar added to each 
can and allow it to stand exposed to 
the light for a few days. 
Illinois. L. R. BRYANT. 
Substitute for a Hotbed. 
Six years ago, when I started to raise 
garden stuff on about two acres, I 
bought 10 old hotbed sash for $1 each; 
got seven chestnut posts, some second¬ 
hand lumber, one roll of building paper, 
20 feet of six-inch sewer pipe, and some 
2x3 for a ridge and rafters. I now 
set up the posts in twos 10J4 feet apart, 
and 15 feet from corner to corner long 
way, using the one post in center of 
south end and post four feet from 
ground to top. I nailed boards on three 
sides, double, with paper between, 
nailed a six-inch board on top for raf¬ 
ters to rest on, fitted on rafter and 
ridge afnd laid on the sash. In south end 
triangle I fitted in sash bars to receive 
glass, butted in, not lapped, boarded up 
north end and arranged a door here. I 
set up chimney at southeast end by 
digging a hole three feet deep, filling 
with concrete and setting a sewer pipe 
on end here, then at the right height 
I placed a T so as to receive flue from 
under bench through hole cut in wall 
somewhat larger than pipe and well 
cemented around to guard against fire. 
I dug a pit 4x4 feet in northeast corner 
of house, just deep enough to accom¬ 
modate good size potstove, and con¬ 
nected with pipe flue running under 
bench. This flue must be well cemented 
at joints and have a raise of at least 
one foot from stove to chimney, sup¬ 
ported on bricks or stone here and there. 
In this little house I arranged broad 
benches leaving a walk of two feet in 
center high enough so plant boxes came 
within eight or 10 inches of lower end 
of sash. This small house cost me but 
a few dollars in actual cash and com¬ 
pared to a hotbed, it just beats it “all 
hollow.” Start your fire here about 
February 15 or 20 in latitude of New 
York and you are ready for business no 
matter if it snows or blows and you 
will succeed much better than with hot¬ 
bed if you are a beginner. This article 
is only meant for the beginner. Hot¬ 
beds are all right in the hands of ex¬ 
perienced gardeners, in the hands of a 
novice they are a “delusion and a 
snare.” j. b. 
Farming on Black Soil. 
C. n. K., Leon, W. Va. —A short time ago 
I read an article in one of the farm jour¬ 
nals entitled “Reclaiming Black Soils,” 
dealing with spots of black land that were 
at one time ponds. This article went on 
to state that this soil was abnormally rich 
in nitrogen and phosphoric acid, but con¬ 
tained only about one-fifteenth of the pot¬ 
ash found in the average soil. It further 
stated that this deficiency could be supplied 
by plowing under a three-inch layer of 
straw, and, that treated this way, would 
raise a good crop of corn. I have just 
such a condition on my farm; about 16 
acres of this black soil, very friable, does 
not bake or get hard as do clay soils, 
slightly sour, well drained, and from which 
I get an occasional crop of cowpeas. I 
have plenty of straw and would like your 
opinion as to the advisability of hauling 
and plowing under, and planting to corn 
in the Spring. If, in your opinion, the 
straw would not answer the purpose, what 
would you advise in the way of commercial 
fertilizers? Also what crop would you sug¬ 
gest planting if you do not think corn 
would prove profitable? 
Ans. —The article you speak of was 
only partly correct. Such black soil or 
muck is usually quite sour. It contains 
considerable nitrogen, but very little 
phosphoric acid or potash. A ton of 
wheat straw contains about six pounds 
of phosphoric acid and 12 pounds of 
potash, but in such a soil the straw de¬ 
cays slowly, and its potash would not b: 
available at once. There is an abun¬ 
dance of organic matter in the black 
soil, while the straw is needed on the 
lighter lands. We should give that soil 
a fair dressing of ground limestone and 
use a mixture of three parts acid phos¬ 
phate to one part muriate of potash— 
about 500 pounds per acre. Corn would 
be the best crop to start with on that 
soil. 
Tomatoes in Canada. 
On page 28, A. V., Saugerties, N. Y., 
asks about growing tomatoes for can¬ 
nery. As he is in about our latitude 
the writer’s experience may be of bene¬ 
fit. This year we have contracted at 
30 cents per bushel. For several years 
it was 25 cents, but the factories found 
that in order to get the goods the ad¬ 
vance was necessary, and at present they 
canvass the growers for additional acre¬ 
age as never before, offering the fur¬ 
ther inducements of free containers and 
in. some cases transportation help. The 
ideal soil here for a maximum produc¬ 
tion is a deep loam which has been an¬ 
nually enriched for a few years pre¬ 
viously with clover or barnyard manure. 
A person who makes a large annual 
corn yield I would expect to succeed 
with tomatoes, but they require and it 
will pay to apply manure more liberally, 
which for best results, should be well 
rotted or composted and applied the Fall 
before, being lightly plowed or disked 
in. # In addition a judicious use of com¬ 
mercial fertilizer around the plant when 
setting is generally used. 
We figure that it costs from $40 to 
$80 to produce an acre of tomatoes and 
deliver to the factory, and the best 
growers, I believe, average fully 400 
bushels per acre, although some years 
there are yields of from 600 to 800 bush¬ 
els, but these are the exceptions, and 
the average for the province is perhaps 
around 200 bushels. 
An important factor is a good plant. 
We start our seed in hotbeds, sowing 
about the last week in March and trans¬ 
planting the seedlings to cold-frames 
one month later, and again to the open 
field by June 1. The usual distance of 
planting is in checks of 4x4)4 or 4x5 
feet, using approximately 2500 plants 
per acre. Our cultivation starts imme¬ 
diately after setting, and is continued 
at intervals of a week or 10 days until 
the growth of vine renders this opera¬ 
tion no longer permiss ble. 
Ontario. harper secord. 
“You see, had the lamb been obedient 
and stayed in the fold it would not have 
been eaten by the wolf, would it?” Boy : 
“No, ma’am; it would have been eaten 
by us.”—Sketch. 
FIFTY YEARS’ UNPARALLELED RECORD, BOTH IN THE FIELD AND WITH THE EXPERIMENT STATIONS 
THE MAPES MANURES 
ABSOLUTELY CHOICEST OF MATERIALS. SEASONING. AND BEST METHODS OF MANUFACTURE 
AVAILABILITY WITHOUT ACIDITY NO ROCK OR ACID PHOSPHATES USED 
IN THE FIELD 
The record of The Mapes Manures in the field is too well known among our thousands of customers and friends, and with us we 
are glad to say the terms are practically interchangeable, as most of our good old customers have become our friends to require more.than 
a reference to it. 
WITH THE EXPERIMENT STATIONS 
We are equally proud of our Record with the Stations. There may at times have been an occasional chance analysis which was 
not quite what we would have liked to have seen, and not as we believe fairly representative of our goods, but with the grand average we 
have no fault to find. 
This is in spite of the fact that Station methods and valuations from the very nature of the case must be broadly general to ap¬ 
ply to the general average of the class of goods examined, and can therefore never be expected to do entire justice to the user of particularly 
choice materials and unusual methods of manufacture. 
From the Annual Report of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, FERTILIZERS, 1912: 
“ MAPES FORMULA AND PERUVIAN GUANO CO.’S fifteen brands all fully meet their guarantees, with the exception of No. 553, in which a 
deficiency of 0.37 per cent, of Potash is fully offset by an overrun of 0.7 per cent. Nitrogen.” 
So strong a statement is not and could not be made of any firm which had an equal or greater number of brands. 
From Annual Bulletin No. 143, December, 1912, Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station. Inspection of Commercial Fertilizers: 
(It publishes a table giving summary of results of analysis of complete fertilizers as compared with manufacturers’ guarantees). 
“MAPES FORMULA AND PERUVIAN GUANO CO. Number of brands analyzed, 18; number equal to guarantee in commercial value, 18.” 
That is, every one of The Mapes Brands are found to be equal to their guarantee in commercial value, and of no other company 
having an equal or a greater number of brands can this be said. 
It publishes another table bearing on the Nitrogen in the different brands analyzed. The Mapes F. & P. G. Co. show 90.26% 
as their percentage Activity of Total Nitrogen, which is the essential point. No other concern having an equal number or greater 
number of brands analyzed has anything like so high a percentage Activity of Total Nitrogen. 
It is unnecessary to say that The Mapes Manures have always been, and will always continue to be, while under the same man¬ 
agement, far above the average of fertilizers offered for sale. 
In speaking of this management, it is certainly interesting that not only have the Mapeses continued successively in the business 
for three generations, grandfather, father and son, but the Lanes, who have been associated with the Mapeses from the start, follow the 
same identical record in the business, grandfather, father and son, successively, and Ave ask—can our friends and customers have a better 
guarantee than this family management that everything has been done and will continue to be done to make the Mapes Manures as good 
as the present knoAvledge of fertilizer science permits for the crops for Avhich they are intended. 
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THE MAPES FORMULA & PERUVIAN GUANO COMPANY, 143 Liberty St., New York 
