300 
THE RURAL NEW-VOKKER 
Iilarth 1 12, 
Reo *1000 
The Convertible Car 
FARMERS’ CLUB 
[Every query must he accompanied by the name 
and address of the writer to insure attention. Be¬ 
fore asking a question, please see whether it is not 
answered in our advertising columns. Ask only 
a few questions at one time. Put questions on a 
separate piece of paper.] 
THE SOIL NEEDS LIME. 
D., Rohbinsvillc, N. J .—I have a 25- 
acre field in grass, seeded in the grain last 
Spring, in potatoes the previous season; 
have a fair stand but clover doesn’t seem 
to thrive in spots. I noticed wherever 
I burned potato vines the clover looks ex¬ 
tra fine. Is it too late now to do any 
good? Would liming it before Spring with 
stone lime, broadcasting later with potash, 
help the hay crop? Would soil-testing in 
paraffin pots help me any? 
Ans. —Burning the potato vines left 
lime and available potash in the soil. 
The action of fire also helps some soils 
mechanically. The inference is that lime 
would pay.- You can broadcast it at any 
time after the snow goes. We have never 
been able to get results from broadcast¬ 
ing on the grass that equal those where 
lime is worked into the soil, but this ap¬ 
plication will pay. The test in the par¬ 
affin pots as described on page 21 will 
■show you whether lime is needed. 
FORCING HOUSE CUCUMBERS. 
A bulletin on cucumbers is issued by the 
U. S. Department of Agriculture. Prof. L. 
C. Corbett gives an excellent study of cu- 
FOR DISTILLING SULPHUR. 
cumber culture both outdoors and under 
glass. lie says that aphis and mildew do 
great damage. The house cucumber is ten¬ 
der, and will not endure some of the strong 
spray mixtures which answer for many 
plants. A mixture of five ounces of carbon¬ 
ate of copper in three pints of strong am¬ 
monia diluted so that one pint makes 15 
gallons of mixture will help. A safeguard 
is to keep the pipes at all times covered 
with sulphur. There are times when it is 
not desirable to use a spray in which case 
distilled sulphur does very well. The device 
for doing this work is shown above. It con¬ 
sists of a small, single-burner oil stove. One 
with a top six inches square will serve the 
purpose. Secure two iron or tin pans similar 
to those used for the baking of layer cake 
and. if possible, have one pan larger in 
diameter by two inches than the other. In 
the larger pan place a layer of sand, as 
free from organic matter as possible, about 
one-lialf inch deep. Upon this set the .second 
pan. which contains flowers of sulphur in 
; efficient quantity to fill the pan about half 
full of sulphur when it Is molten. Light the 
lamp, heating the sand to a sufficient degree 
to melt and maintain the sulphur in a 
molten condition, but exercise the greatest 
care in regulating the flame of the lamp, so 
that it shall never touch the edge of the 
pan containing the sulphur and observe 
every precaution to keep the sulphur from 
becoming ignited. Burning sulphur in an 
inclosure containing living plants is certain 
death to all plants contained in the area. 
The distillation of sulphur by keeping it in 
a molten condition over a sand bath is per¬ 
fectly harmless to the plants, but is destruc¬ 
tive to parasitic fungi like lettuce mildew 
and cucumber mildew. 
A POTATO VARIETY DYING. 
C. L. Fitch of the Colorado Agricultural 
College writes an article in News Notes on 
“The Death of a Potato.” This potato is 
the Early Ohio, which is said to be the 
"most widely grown variety in the United 
States.” In Colorado this potato seems 
doomed from the disease known as internal 
brown rot, which is spreading all over the 
plains region. 
"A Nebraska potato region that has 
shipped as many as 1,400 cars of Ohios in 
a single year, finds its present market 
nearly destroyed by this disease and other 
causes. During the writer's recent institute 
trip in Nebraska, lie saw 6,000 bushels of 
Oliios tliat one merchant had taken on 
store bills, and for which lie had not found 
an outlet as yet. The stem end disease 
shows, first, as a slight discoloration seen 
on. cutting off the stem end of the tuber. 
Later brown decomposition extends through 
the inner structure until all parts within 
the cortical are spotted with rusty brown. 
At one place whore we held a potato show, 
half the fancy Ohios shown were affected, 
and the best lot, after cooking, gave off, 
when run through the ricer, a dark liquid 
and a fetid odor, although not visibly af¬ 
fected with the trouble. At another place, a 
fancy lot of Oliios was thrown out of com¬ 
petition as commercially worthless, because 
the first 10 potatoes cut open were all far 
gone with brown rot. Nothing kills trade 
in potatoes for a variety or a region more 
quickly than to find that the outside appear¬ 
ance gives the lie to the inside quality. For 
this and other reasons, 25(1 cars of Early 
Ohio potatoes stood unsold on track in 
Omaha and Kansas City at one time the 
past Fall. 
“There appear to he two ways of escape 
for growers of Ohio potatoes: First, good 
farming, rotation, cultivation, storage— 
that at Greeley has sucessfully resisted 
the gradually Increasing vigor of this 
disease elsewhere; but he who knows the 
Western farmer is aware that it will be 
many years before farm practice generally 
can approach that of our best regions in 
Colorado. The second way out is by disease 
resistant varieties. The new and better 
early variety, the Irish Cobbler, promises 
to be worth, to our own State, all our pota¬ 
to appropriations to date. For their own 
use many people on the Plains raise Blue 
Victor, a variety so far absolutely immune 
to the disease, and also absolutely unsalable 
because of its color. I was able to show 
the Nebraska growers that these purple 
potatoes had white bud variations that 
would enable them to change the variety to 
a white, salable one, without expense and 
with sure local adaptability. 
“The conditions, most critical in Nebraska 
and eastern Colorado, illustrate two points; 
the usefulness of disease resistant plants, 
and the efficiency of good rotation, fertility, 
and tilth, like enlightened home manage¬ 
ment for a human family, to ward off and 
to pass by diseases that, come to other homes 
and fields.” 
SWEET PEAS UNDER GLASS. 
S. G. M., Calla, O .—I have a new green¬ 
house, 20 x 60, no heat, with two ground 
benches. I wish to plant to sweet peas as 
soon as I can. Am I safe to plant this 
month (February)? it did not freeze more 
than one inch all Winter; I can spade it 
now ; 10 degrees below freezing outside. 
Ans. —Sweet peas may be safely sown 
in an unheated greenhouse in February, 
and ought to produce a crop of flowers 
some weeks earlier than outdoor peas. 
These plants will hear several degrees of 
frost if they have been kept cool right 
along, and the seeds are frequently sown 
in the Autumn for outdoor culture in 
Europe, and also in some portions of the 
United States. When growing sweet 
peas as a Winter crop they are kept at 
48 to 50 degrees at night, with a mini¬ 
mum of 46 degrees, as a lower tempera¬ 
ture than the latter will cause the buds 
to drop. w. H. TAPLIN. 
PROOF OF THE VALUE OF VERMONT 
APPLES. 
Compare the following from the Ver¬ 
mont Experiment Station report with 
the letters from Rhode Island and Penn- 
svlvania on page 180 . 
The feeding of apple pomace has been 
under survey for many years. It has been 
fed freely in the Fall to scores of station 
cows—both experimentally and as a staple 
food—with uniformly good results. At no 
time was the quality of the milk affected. 
Neither milk nor butter are injured by 
liberal feeding. Apple pomace needs no 
special care in silaging. If leveled from 
time to time as put into the silo and left 
to itself uncovered and unweighted, it does 
well. It may be fed directly without being 
put in the silo. The financial side of the 
proposition is most alluring. “Pomace at 
a dollar a ton at the barn is a great bar¬ 
gain and at: a much higher cost is a fair 
equivalent of corn silage.” A ton brings 
on to the farm six pounds nitrogen, five 
pounds potash and two pounds phosphoric 
acid worth, doubtless, wellnigh a dollar as 
plant: food. “It should he fed lightly at 
first until the cows get accustomed to it: 
then as high as 35 pouuds daily may be 
fed without harming the cow or depleting 
the pocket book.” 
Killing an Osage Hedge. —I am sorry 
that G. W., Joppa, Md., did not wait till 
August to get clear of his Osage hedge. I 
once had to face the same problem. I cut 
in August, cut out all post timber, piled the 
brush on the stumps, left it there till the 
next August when it was burned. After 
this I had to make but one or two trips 
along the old row to cut a few sprouts 
with a hatchet, and all trouble was over. 
Ohio. c. o’b. 
Roadster with emergency seat and top $1000 
Delivery Car, fully equipped with top $1001 
Changes from a roomy Touring Car to a 
Roadster or Delivery Car in three minutes. 
Famous six years for its get-there-and-back 
ability. Does what you want it to in all 
weathers and roads—snow, rain, mud, good 
roads, bad roads, level or hill. 
The car for any man whose business re¬ 
quires him to get about quickly and surely . 
Over 25,000 in use today, and every one 
of them doing work . That is.what you want. 
Reo Runabout $500 
Easily the most reliable Runabout under 
$1000. With folding seat ($35 extra) it carries 
four passengers as easily as two. 
The get-about car for the busy man who 
has a lot of ground to cover and wants to be 
sure of getting-there-and-back. 
Write immediately for catalogue and address of Reo 
dealer nearest to you and get 
all the facts about Reo Cars.j 
R. M. Owen & Co. 
General Sales Agents for 
Reo Motor Car Co. 
Lansing, Michigan 
Licensed under Selden Patent 
Reo two-passenger Runabout $500 Top and 
Windshield extra. Extra seat holding two $35 
HARRIS’ SEED CORN 
W E take the greatest pains 
with our seed corn and can 
furnish seed that will grow and 
produce the largest possible 
yields. We have some new and 
improved varieties that are far 
superior to common kinds. 
SEED POTATOES 
The best early and lr.te varie¬ 
ties of our own raising, free from 
disease. Some bargain prices. 
(Sir Walter Raleigh, {pure) 75c 
per bushel.) 
OATS —The oest varieties,pure 
clean seed. 
VEGETABLE SEED-Largely 
our own growing of very superi¬ 
or quality. We raise seeds of all 
kinds. Catalogue and price list free 
Hall’s Gold Nugget Corn Yielded 200 Bu. 
Crates of Ears Per Acre 
Joseph Harris Co., Coldwafer, N.Y.. 
