1910. 
TTHE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
607 
THE COST OF A CROP. 
No. 8—A New York Bean Crop. 
We are to have a wide range of crop 
reports, and that is a good thing. W. 
A. Lawrence, of Steuben County, N. Y., 
sends the first figures of a bean crop of 
six acres. He used 35 loads of mantfre 
at one dollar, including hauling and 
spreading, $35. He spent 40 hours at 
plowing or $16, making a total to start 
with of $51, or $8.50 per acre. This 
price of manure is low. New York city 
manure would cost us about $2.25 per 
ton and about 75 cents to haul over our 
hills. It is doubtful if it would contain as 
much plant food as the manure Mr. 
Lawrence used. We must remember 
this when we compare this bean crop 
with one where purchased fertilizers are 
used. 
No. 9—An Ohio Oat Crop. 
This report is sent by. E. W. Kinney, 
of Huron County, Ohio. There were 
nine acres in the field. In all, a little 
over 11 days were spent plowing and 
fitting and seeding. All told, this work 
amounted .to $34.05. The fertilizer co-st 
$11 and the seed bats $7.20. Thus the 
cost of the nine acres was $52.25, or 
$5.80 per acre. Mr. Kinney puts the 
cost of labor at less than $4 per day, as 
he says poor horses were used part of 
the time. 
No. 10—An Ohio Potato Crop. 
As an offset to No* 6, printed last 
week, we give the following from Mr. 
Geo. IT. Thomsen, of Sandusky County, 
Ohio. Last week Mr. Foster, of Long 
Island, told us how. 16 Vo acres cost 
$874.99, or $53.30 per acre, to get the 
potatoes in the ground, well fertilized. 
Now here comes Mr. Thomsen with a 
cost of $23 per acre, which he says cov¬ 
ered everything except the seed. We 
want to get the detailed items for this 
year’s crop. A comparison of this new 
land where no fertilizer is needed with 
that Long Island soil where they used 
$34.39 wofifeh of fertilizer pec acre will 
be a g^reat contrast. You will sec that 
Mr. Foster uses a greater value in fer¬ 
tilizer than Mr. Thomsen claims for total 
expenses of the crop. We want more 
details about this: 
I am interested in your paper, and am 
managing a 250-acre stock, grain and vege¬ 
table farm. I want 1o tell you about my 
potatoes last year. I bad two acres, on 
which I dug 430 bushels. Sold at 60 cpnts 
per bushel, which is .$129 an acre or $258 
ou the Kwo acres. The cost of labor, spray¬ 
ing, cultivating, digging and hauling to 
market was $46, which gives me a profit on 
the two acres of $212 or $100 an acre. This 
land is worth $100 an acre and is new 
land. This crop was the first crop grown. 
I sowed to rye and will plant same ground 
tills year; expect 250 bushels au acre, as 
last year I turned under sod. 
GEO. H. THOMSEN. 
No. 11—A Virginia Peanut Crop. 
! am going to send you records of the 
expense of growing 7*4 acres of Virginia 
bunch peanuts, the first items of which I 
give below. This field produced a crop 
of Winter oats and vetch last Spring, 
which was cut for hay, the ground plowed, 
top-dressed with manure and planted to 
corn. Crimson clover was sown in the 
corn, but on account of extreme dry weath¬ 
er the stand was very poor. Ono-lialf the 
field where clover was poorest was seeded 
to rye November 4. Rye made a fair stand, 
and it and (lie scattering clover were about 
six inches high when the ground was 
plowed, April 12 to 14. Here are the ex¬ 
penses so far, not counting cost of clover 
and rye seed, which should be charged to 
permaneut improvement of the land : Five 
and one-lourth days man and two horses 
plowing with No. 20 Oliver plow and har¬ 
rowing with Acme at $4 per day, $21. 
Norfolk Co., Va. joiin b. lewis. 
Cabbage Worms. 
What arc the best remedies for cabbage 
worms? Does it succeed to plant cabbage 
seed in the hills and thin the plants? 
Churehville, N. Y. v. k. 
We use Paris green or other forms of 
arsenic in water or flour before the head 
forms. We would not use tills poison 
after the head closes, for the arsenic may 
not be washed out of the cabbage. After 
the head forms, pepper, hot - water, salt 
and lime are used. You can grow cabbage 
by putting flic seed whore the crop is to 
stand, but with us the transplants do bet¬ 
ter, and we can often grow late cabbage 
as a second crop. 
Eradicating Dandelion in Lawn. 
1. B. Q., Refton, Pa. —Can you recom¬ 
mend a safe and effective spray to be 
used for eradicating dandelions from the 
lawn? 
Ans. —The following advice is given 
by B. O. Longyear, of the Colorado 
Agricultural College, in “News Notes.” 
The most effective and practicable meth¬ 
od of clearing a dandelion infested lawn, 
other than by hand digging, is by the use 
of iron sulphate applied as a spray. The 
writer has succeeded with three applica¬ 
tions in entirely killing all plants of this 
common lawn pest without injuring the 
grass. A portion of a lawn so badly in¬ 
fested that hardly anything but dandelions 
was visible a year ago is now without a 
single plant, and the grass has thickened 
a good deal in consequence. A solution 
of copperas or iron sulphate made by 
dissolving at the rate of lVt pound of the 
salt In a gallon of wat^r should be applied 
to the lawn with a spray pump so as to 
wet every plant. It will not do to use a 
common sprinkler. The solution must be 
put on in the form of a fine spray applied 
with some force to be most effective. A 
common bucket spray pump, or even a hand 
atomizer, for very small areas, is suitable, 
provided it makes a fine, forcible spray. I)o 
not try to hit the dandelions only, but 
cover every square inch of the lawn. In 
this way all seedling plants will be killed. 
Put on a second application in two to three 
weeks and a third and possibly a fourth 
late in Summer If any of the dandelions 
start into growth. The grass will be black¬ 
ened for a short time, but soon recovers 
and after a watering and mowing will ap¬ 
pear darker green than before. Do not allow 
the solution to get on cement or stone 
walks as it produces a rather permanent, 
yellow stain. 
Tarring Corn; Crimson Clover. 
E. A. J., Phalanx StaO .—IIow is seed 
corn tarred to prevent the crows from dig¬ 
ging it up? Please state your opinion on 
sowing Crimson clover at the last cultiva¬ 
tion on my clay land in this latitude, 
Trumbull County, 0. Will it pay me? 
Ans. —Our plan is to put the corn 
in a metal bucket and warm it. Then 
put two tablespoonfuls of tar on top 
of the corn and stir with an iron spoon. 
Stir and stir arid then stir again, work¬ 
ing the corn- from top to bottom. In this 
way the corn will all be coated with 
tar. Sift wood ashes over it to dry 
the corn, and it will handle better. It 
is doubtful if Crimson clover will live 
through the Winter three times in 10. 
It will make more than enough growth 
during the Fall to pay for seed and 
labor. Add Cow-horn turn-ip seed and 
also one peck of rye to the acre. The 
clover and turnips will probably bet 
killed out in late Winter, but the rye 
will live and give bulk to turn under. 
A Plague of Ants. 
E. G. P., Paterson, N. J. —1 came here 
for the Summer and started housekeeping. 
I find the closets filled with ants, black 
ones, but small; not only the kitchen clos¬ 
ets, but the washstaud drawers, and even 
the bedroom floors. As I never was trou¬ 
bled like tills before, I really do not know 
what to do. I asked a neighbor, and she 
advised tansy leaves, but this did no good 
at all. 
Ans. —First find the nests where the 
ants come from and destroy them. The 
little black ant often has its nests out 
of doors, under stones. Should the 
nests be found they can be destroyed 
with boiling water, or by spraying with 
kerosene, or these outdoor nests may be 
destroyed with carbon bisulphide. Make 
a hole in the nest several inches deep 
with a broom handle or other stick, and 
put in about one ounce of carbon bisul¬ 
phide, covering quickly. If a large nest 
several holes should be treated with the 
bisulphide. This chemical must be care¬ 
fully handled, as it is poisonous and 
highly explosive; never bring any light 
near it. Trapping the ants will then 
remove them from the house. Dijp 
sponges in sweetened wafer and put 
where the ants congregate, gather up 
from time to time and drop in boiling 
water to destroy the ants clinging to 
the sponge. After a quantity of the ants 
have been destroyed the colonies are so 
weakened by the loss of workers that 
they die out.' You may find the nests 
are in the house, under floors or behind 
boards. In that case, spray with gaso¬ 
line, taking all precautions to avoid dan¬ 
ger from fire, and then trap as before 
advised. 
The Country Merchant Again. 
I know a good deal as to the opposition 
of the retail dealers to the parcels post. 
There is no doubt that they are all working 
against it as hard as they can. The ex¬ 
press companies have been the .great fac¬ 
tor, and no doubt are doing all they can 
to-day. But I know that what Congress¬ 
men really fear now is this organized op¬ 
position of the retail dealer. Are the people 
of this country going to be ruled by this 
class? There is just one way to fight 
them. Let farmers organize and pledge 
themselves that till these dealers cease 
fighting the parcels post they will buy 
everything possible from the . mail-order 
houses. This will bring them to time as 
nothing else will, and as I believe is the 
only practical way to secure the needed 
legislation. A partial or limited parcels 
post would, I believe, be worse than nothing, 
for it would probably be a failure and tend 
to discredit the whole thing. n. 
Illinois. 
It. N.-Y.—We have opened a discussion 
on this question, and feel prepared lo go 
to the bottom of it. The above proposition 
is no more remarkable than that of the 
country merchant who recently told us 
that the stores keep up the value of farm 
property. We think the country merchants 
are standing in their own light when they 
oppose parcels post. They cannot hold it 
up forever. It would be far better for 
them to “get wise” now and plan to use 
the privilege in their own business. We 
believe that a limited parcels post will 
demonstrate its value. 
Kerosene on Stumps. 
In reading “The Ileron Nest,” I was 
greatly interested in the clearing of the 
wild land df stumps by saturating them with 
kerosene and gunpowder and burning. Can 
you toll me if this is a practical way of 
removing green stumps? I would like to 
hear from someone who has actually cleared 
land in this way. f. l. a. 
Kinsman, O. 
Mr. Foster, author of “The Heron Nest,” 
assured us that the plan mentioned had 
been tried successfully with dry stumps. 
Time must be given for the kerosene to 
work into the stump, and it must be dry 
at time of burning. We would like to hear 
from readers about it. 
illSi 
si! 5 !! 
iPiilfiiiiiil 
mi 
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SLATE FOR ROOFS. 
Growing Popularity of This Fine Building Ma¬ 
terial Due to a Better Understanding 
of Its Advantages. 
James Carew, the master builder of 
his day (1602), held slate as a roofing 
material in great esteem: 
“In substance, thinne,” he wrote, “in 
colour, faire; in waight, light; in last¬ 
ing, strong.” 
Over three hundred years later—that 
is to say, only a few years ago—Samuel 
Hughes, C.E., expressed the opinion of 
the well-informed members of the build¬ 
ing profession when lie wrote into his 
report: 
“Slate is surely to come into extensive 
use where great strength and durability 
are required. In these qualities slate 
may challenge comparison with any 
building material in the world.” 
In other words, for good looks, light¬ 
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hundred odd years of invention, experi¬ 
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This is the test of “time,” which the 
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In appearance slate is the most or¬ 
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roofing material. It lacks the top-heavi¬ 
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galvanized iron, and the slip-shod make¬ 
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roofing. 
Professor A. P. Jamison, M. E„ Pur¬ 
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as a valuable asset on a building. “A 
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lifetime.” 
Felt, shingles and ir-on cost less; tin, 
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practically no life whatever. 
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