1913 . 
776 
THE) RURAL* NBW-YORKER 
DRYING THE BEAN CROP. 
Will sonift New York farmers who 
grow beans tell us how they dry and cure 
the vines? We have trouble with them. 
J. B. K. 
In this section there is quite an acre¬ 
age of beans raised. All beans are pulled 
with a bean puller, putting two rows into 
one. Then some farmers fork them out 
of the rows by hand, putting two pulled 
rows into one, making little piles from 
six to eight feet apart in the row, so as 
not to have too large bunches. Others 
use the side-delivery rake, which we 
think leaves the beans in better shape 
for the air to pass through them. We 
think the principal thing is to keep the 
beans turned every day and not to draw 
them until they are thoroughly dry. We 
think there are a great many beans 
spoiled from not turning often enough 
and in drawing too soon. No one in this 
section uses the little stack method of 
curing. I would think in a very wet sea¬ 
son they would mold. When I spoke of 
turning every day I meant in very wet 
weather; in dry weather not so often. 
All varieties of beans are raised in this 
section; all are cured in the same man¬ 
ner. The beans should be ripe when 
pulled, the bean kernel hard when drawn 
to barn. gilbert a. prole. 
Genesee Co., N. Y. 
and train will be held for same. A 
train is never held for express matter 
and I think the railroad receives (50 per 
cent, out of it, the cleanest money they 
earn, I believe. b. b. 
UTILIZING MUCK FROM SALT MARSH. 
My garden backs up upon a salt marsh 
which is flooded each day by the' tide. 
This sort of marsh is a heavy muck 
which ought to be valuable for fertiliz¬ 
ing purposes if it were not full of salt. 
What can I do to make this muck avail¬ 
able? Can I pile it in a compost and 
add any chemicals which will sweeten 
it and take out the salt? q. 
Bridgeport, Conn. 
We have been inclined to advise land 
plaster or gypsum for mixing with the salt 
muck. In the West land plaster put on 
the alkali soils will make a chemical 
combination which renders the objection¬ 
able salts soluble, so that they are 
easily washed out. Dr. E. H. Jenkins of 
the Connecticut Experiment Station 
shows in the following note that the 
plaster would not be of much use in 
the salt muck: 
Mixing salt muck with gypsum or 
land plaster will not get rid of the 
common salt which it contains. There 
can he no such reaction, as there is in 
alkaline soil containing carbonates. In 
those soils sulphate of lime mixed with 
carbonate of soda, which is a very cor¬ 
rosive thing, makes a trade and you have 
sulphate of soda, which is not cor¬ 
rosive, and carbonate of lime. 
There is no way to get the salt out 
by letting it leach. I believe, however, 
that if your correspondent stratified this 
muck with his horse manure, using about 
half as much muck as manure, he would 
get a first-rate fertilizer, not carrying 
more than enough salt in it to salt his 
land, which was a common practice in 
olden times, at least for meadows, but 
which has been forgotten now. If he 
does not get on more than 200 or 300 
pounds of actual salt per acre, it can¬ 
not harm the land. Fresh water muck 
I believe will pretty nearly double the 
agricultural effect of stable manure; 
that is, some of our best farmers a half 
century ago believed that equal parts 
of fresh muck and stable manure, bulk 
for bulk, was as valuable as stable man¬ 
ure itself. E. H. JENKINS. 
U. S. VOTERS AND PRESIDENTIAL VOTE. 
To settle a bet will you state how many 
actual voters there are in this country? 
Brooklyn, N. Y. a. b. s.‘ 
The census of 1010 shows that there 
were in this country 26,999,151 males. 21 
years and over. In addition to this 
there were in the several States which 
permit women’s suffrage something over 
300,000 women over 21, most of whom 
were voters. It does not mean, how¬ 
ever, that all these males were voters, 
for this total of 26,000,000 or more in¬ 
cludes unnaturalized persons of foreign 
birth, and also a large number of negroes, 
Indians, Chinese and others who are not 
permitted to vote. For example, there 
are in this country about 2*4 million 
negro men who are over 21, but"probably 
there would be a scant half million of 
actual voters. Take out the large num¬ 
ber of colored people in the South who 
do not vote, and there are at this time 
about 20,000,000 people in the entire 
country who are eligible to vote, if they 
paid their poll taxes and went through 
the legal forms. At the last election the 
best figures we can obtain show that the 
following vote was cast: 
Woodrow Wilson . 6,291.776 
Wm. H. Taft. 3,481,119 
Iheo. Roosevelt. 4.106.247 
Eugene V. Debs. 826 038 
Eugene W. Chafin. 176T59 
Arthur E. Reimer. 19j)90 
14,900,429 
Insurance for Needy Students. 
The Wisconsin Press Bulletin mentions 
a plan to be tried for helping needy 
students. This plan, it seems, has al¬ 
ready been tried at Cornell, Yale and 
Pennsylvania. To raise a loan fund for 
needy students at the University of Wis¬ 
consin, the senior class of that institution 
has decided to insure themselves for $30,- 
000, each individual member of the class 
taking out a policy for $100 in the 
AVisconsin State Life Fund. The plan is 
to have the four or five hundred seniors 
this year agree to pay the annual 
premjum of $2.80 per year for 20 years, 
or_$56 in all. The fund of $30,000 or 
$35,000 available at the end or 20 years 
will be invested and the proceeds used 
in making loans to needy students. In¬ 
asmuch as the loans are repaid by these 
students when they become self support¬ 
ing after graduating from college, it is 
estimated that the general fund will be 
increased by approximately $1,000 a year. 
EXPRESS OR PARCELS POST. 
In the discussion of sending eggs by 
parcel post and by express, whence 
comes the idea that the express company 
handles them any better than parcel 
post? From where comes the idea, that 
in riding in a postal car their hatching 
qualities are injured more than in riding 
in an express car? Now there is this 
much difference between the two. Every 
time a piece of mail is handled a piece 
of express is handled from one to a 
dozen times as much. Nearly all mail 
is sent to its destination direct with 
httle or no handling. In express, a 
driver calls for a package, gives it a 
dung into his wagon, and takes it to 
the warehouse to be billed out. It is 
there unloaded on a truck. A sorter 
then sorts and puts it in a run. Then 
comes a caller to bill it out, and when 
ne is through bang it goes into the run 
ior the train. Here comes another 
!t,,a °ri oa, ^ s on a truck, in the wagon 
«uli t u '. n ’? *he depot. A man comes 
van a truck and takes it to the express 
’nr, another in the car throws it in 
run and a messenger has to check 
Maybe it will have to pass 
° r -i, n \ ore transfer points 
eomr... ve *i°. ! )0 transferred to another 
f mpuny, which all means so much more 
; ‘ t ! n ? ^ll it finally reaches the person 
for * Now some are not handled 
nd ti lUS m . l,< % but 1 think you will 
find the majority of them are 
n '‘; Another thing, all mail 
made that is got off 
Fumigating Woodchucks. —As there 
have been several questions about killing 
burrowing animals by fumigation we 
print the following from a Montana bul¬ 
letin on “Killing Prairie Dogs”: 
“When the attempt to eradicate them 
is made late in the season, fumigation 
with carbon bisulphide is the best, if 
not the only, means of getting results. 
It is also an effective supplement to early 
Spring poisoning. This method is some¬ 
what more expensive than the use of 
poisoned grain, but, if one considers its 
greater effectiveness, it is doubtful if the 
slight increase in cost is worth taking 
into account. In nearly every case all 
the animals in a hole will be' killed by 
a single fumigation, while several ap¬ 
plications of poison may be necessary 
to produce the same results. Carbon 
bisulphide is a heavy, oily liquid, which 
vaporizes rapidly, forming a heavy gas 
which at once settles to the bottom of 
the burrow. In its use the only pre¬ 
caution necessary is to keep it away 
from fire, as it is highly inflammable and 
mildly explosive. On this account it 
should never be opened near a fire, nor 
should it be handled by a person who is 
smoking. It is to be used as follows: 
A ball of some porous material—dried 
horse dung or cotton answers very well— 
is saturated with the carbon bisulphide 
and dropped into the hole, which is im¬ 
mediately plugged with dirt to confine 
the fumes within the burrow. The best 
results will be obtained when it is used 
after a rain, while the ground is still 
moist, confining the fumes more closely 
within the burrow and preventing their 
escape through the porosity of the soil. 
Moist soil also stops the burrow better 
than that which is dry and hard. For 
handling the liquid in the field a gallon 
coal-oil can or a long-spouted (engi¬ 
neer’s) oil can is recommended as the 
safest and most economical. A pair of 
long scissor (stuffing) forceps is useful 
for handling the material to be saturated, 
but is not absolutely necessary.” 
o 
"N 
More Wheat Per Acre 
We cannot control the price of a bushel of 
wheat, because too many countries raise wheat. 
But we can increase the profit from an acre of 
wheat by reducing the cost of production per 
bushel. There is not much profit in 13 bushels of 
wheat per acre, which is the American average. 
There is good money in yields of 2 5 to 3 5 bushels. 
These can be obtained, if one prepares the land 
right, uses good seed and good fertilization. 
POTASH 
Good fertilization means enough fertilizer 
of the right kind. With a good rotation 400 to 
600 pounds per acre is enough, provided a reason¬ 
ably high-grade formula such as 2-8-6 or 0-10-6 
is used. The low-grade 1-7-1, 2-8-2 and 0-10-2 
formulas are out of date and out of balance, and 
the plant food in them costs too much per unit. 
Urge your dealer to carry high-grade formulas or 
if he is stocked up with low-grade stuff get him 
to buy some potash salts with which to bring up 
the potash content to a high grade . One bag of 
muriate of potash added to a ton of fertilizer 
will do it. 
If you prefer real bone or basic slag in place of acid phosphate try 300 to 400 pounds 
per acre of a mixture of 1600 pounds of either with 400 pounds of muriate of potash. 
You will find that Potash Pays. 
These high-potash mixtures produce better wheat, cipcer, heavy grain and stiff straw. 
We sell Potash salts in any quantity from 200 pounds up. If your dealer will not get 
potash for you, write us for prices and for our FREE booklet on Fall fertilizers. 
GERMAN KALI WORKS, Inc., 42 Broadway, New York 
Chicago, McCormick Block New Orleans, Whitney Central Bank Bldg. Atlanta, Empire Bldg. 
Savannah, Bank and Trust Bldg. San Francisco, 25 California Street 
When you write advertisers mention The 
R. N.-Y. and you'll get a quick reply and a 
“square deal.” See guarantee editorial page. 
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The American Iron Roofing Co, 
Station U ELYRIA, OHIO. 
Get 
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and Rock-Bottom Prices on 
Kanneberff 
Steel Shingles 
”We Pay the Freight ’* 
They make the most economical and 
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Send for Catalog 
of designs, sizes and many styles. We sell 
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102 Don*la* St. (Est. 1886) Canton, Ohio 
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RIFE ENGINE CO., 429 Trinity Bldg., New York 
Saves a Man and Team 
ti-t tfu-f* *4+ j 
IMS w } r, \ MUM r^M) 
11IIIIIIIIIIII llll IIIHI || || HU || 
I i 1 ’it 1 1? f t h i 0 M Q h i \ t h I 
low PRICES (OK THIS HANDSOME FENCE 
100 other stvlcs. Many cheaper than wood—allbetter. Forl.awna, 
in ** ” 
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through one 
or maybe it 
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more or 
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train intended 
Modern Farm Buildings, by Alfred 
Hopkins, A. A. I. A. A very handsome 
and attractive book, discussing stables, 
cow barns and other farm buildings 
from the scientific standpoint. Both 
beauty and efficiency are studied, and the 
examples giveu, mostly of the farm 
buildings on great estates, are very in¬ 
teresting. While the book is not writ¬ 
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farmer, it is entirely practical in its 
scope, and is most up-to-date in its dis¬ 
cussion of stable fittings. It is beauti¬ 
fully illustrated, and handsomely printed 
—and bound. Published by McBride, 
Nast & Co., New York; price $3 net; 
postage, 25 cents additional. 
Operated 
by the man 
on the load. 
Operated with ^ 
gasoline M 
engine. 
Drum holds 
240 ft of rope. 
Ireland Hay Hoist 
A powerful machine that saves time and labor in 
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Pulley to suit your engine. Guaranteed as rep¬ 
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Box 14, Norwich, New York. 
Ellis Champion 
Threshers 
Suit everyone. Both the profes¬ 
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Champion rightly named. The picture 
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We also make tread and sweep horse-power, draa or circular saws 
ensilage cutters, corn shelle.-s, etc. Ourcataloutells the whole story. 
Be Your Own Thresherman 
Save enough to own the Thresher. Be independent. 
get ready. 
ELLIS KEYSTONE AGRICULTURAL WORKS, Pottstown, Pa. 
