1913. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
5 
RAILROAD WORM 5N APPLES. 
What is the host practise to pursue to 
stamp out, eradicate and destroy the cause 
of “railroady” apples? a. f. d. 
Fall River, Mass. 
I would say to anyone who would 
stamp out, eradicate and destroy the 
cause of railroady apples that he has a 
large job on his hands, especially if sur¬ 
rounded by neighbors who raise Fall ap¬ 
ples which are allowed to decay under 
their trees. The trouble with the writ¬ 
er's apples is caused by a small fly which 
lays the eggs from which the maggots are 
hatched that cause the railroady appear¬ 
ance in the flesh of his apples. The only 
practical way known at present to keep 
them in check is to destroy all such fruit 
before the maggot leaves the apple. As 
the fly makes a small puncture in the 
skin of the apple and there deposits the 
egg, and the worm as soon as hatched en¬ 
ters the flesh of the apple, spraying as 
yet, has not proved effective in destroy¬ 
ing them. Hard apples with tough skins 
are rarely attacked, but the earlier soft- 
skinned and fleshed varieties prove an 
ideal place for them to breed, and where 
growers will not unite in destroying such 
fruit perhaps the most practical way is 
to raise those varieties less subject to 
their attack. xi. o. mead. 
Massachusetts. 
HANDLING THE SUNFLOWER CROP. 
I noted your call last year for in¬ 
formation as to care of sunflower seed, 
also note in a recent issue a writer’s 
views on sunflower seed for fowl; never 
noted any bad effects from liberal feed¬ 
ing. I have never taken much interest 
in flower raising of any kind, except sun¬ 
flowers. Back in the sixties I got the 
name “sunflower”; rented a piece of land 
and planted sunflowers around the field 
and up through bare spots in center. I 
think they are the most beautiful, easiest 
raised and all around beneficial flowers 
on earth. If you do not think so plant 
a few the coming Spring, and watch them 
grow, (live them a little care until one 
foot high; will take care of themselves 
after that. Notice the strong sturdy 
plant, with great large green leaves, 
which cattle and horses relish when 
green ; now note the flower sometimes as 
large as 14 inches across, with their head 
turned toward the sun in the morning 
and nod to it until satisfied, as it were, 
and then gently bow until following morn¬ 
ing, and when matured meekly bow its 
face toward earth and await man’s time 
to gather. There are several kinds that 
do well with us, so there is no trouble 
in having flower seed for fowls from 
August until snow falls. We had this 
year; in fact we plant all times from 
April until July 12, any vacant spots in 
or around garden, along fences, bare 
spots in corn, potatoes or beans. They 
do best where they can grow well above 
their company; not more than one plant 
in a place, when hoed first time. No 
fear of planting too early in Spring, for 
I have often seen them do well after 
lying on ground all Winter farther north 
than New York State. 
As to taking care of seed for Winter, 
have just finished caring for ours, about 
four bushels. Let them stand until you 
wish to shell. We have a three-wheel 
cart, handiest thing on place. The box 
holds about four bushels, cut off head and 
thump them against side of box and all 
good ripe seeds will shell. Throw the 
remainder with head in hen or pig yard 
and watch them save the rest; in fact 
horses will eat the green leaves with 
eagerness. I considered I could shell one- 
half bushel per hour alone. I put seed 
in a coarse bran sack and leave them 
around in wind and sun a few days, then 
hang up so rats or mice cannot get on 
them, as they will try some cute ways to 
get in bag. If they do you will have 
naught but shucks in Spring. I have 
priced them at times in feed stores, and 
never saw them offered at less than $3 
per bushel. In buying prepared fowl 
feed first thing will show you the few 
flower seeds, where our fowls have had 
all they could eat so far this Summer 
and Fall, and about four bushels for 
Winter and seed. I just finished yesterday 
shelling and cutting stalks in stove lengths 
stored in woodshed. j. n. b. 
Collins, N. Y. 
PRACTICAL TILE DRAINING METHODS 
Part III. 
Laying tiie Tile. —After the grading 
is finished I lay the tile with the hook 
described. It is easier and quicker for 
me to lay the tiles with such a hook than 
by hand, but an expert who worked for 
me preferred to lay them by hand. He 
had done most of his ditching in marsh 
land in Illinois, and usually only dug 
from two to 2%-foot ditches, which were 
easier to lay tiles in by hand. I take a 
tile on the hook, lower it into the ditch, 
and lay it snugly against the last tile laid 
in the rounding groove cut to fit it. If it 
does not make a tight joint I turn it by 
lifting the hook quickly with a sidewise 
motion. Here is where the advantage of 
a straight ditch, well graded, becomes ap¬ 
parent. If straight, the tiles give very 
little trouble about making tight joints. 
One must occasionally take out one tile 
and try another, but not often. After 
the tiles are laid I throw on some of the 
fine clay from the bank to hold them, or 
else shake down some of the subsoil with 
a spade, walking on it to pack it. I finish 
filling the ditch with a plow. I cut a 
pole 12 or 15 feet long and hitch a team 
to each end and a plow to the middle. 
Three men and two teams can fill a 40- 
rod ditch in less than an hour, as two or 
three bouts are sufficient. 
Other Hints. —If I wish to put my 
tiles down four feet I dig three cuts with 
the 18-inch spade; two cuts with a 22- 
inch spade makes three feet four inches. 
Where possible it is well to plow the 
piece to be drained in such a manner as 
to leave a dead furrow where each ditch 
is to be. Then, by running a plow once 
more in the dead furrow, one can have 
his tiles down four feet by digging a ditch 
three feet or three feet two inches deep. 
In putting in an eight-inch tile I timed 
myself for speed. I easily dug one rod 
and a half of first cut, or one rod of sec¬ 
ond cut, per hour, in some very stiff clay, 
digging to grade and cleaning out as I 
went. This would make a little over six 
rods in eight hours. One can dig faster 
where the ditch needs to be only five 
inches wide instead of a foot. (The above 
was dug to a depth of three feet four 
inches.) There seems to be a prejudice 
against ditching. It is considered dirty, 
hard work. If performed in the manner 
which I have described it is not very 
dirty—certainly not so dirty as handling 
manure. In deep ditches a pair of slicker 
pants, cut off below the boot tops, and 
worn outside the boots, afford a great 
protection. Much water in the ditch is 
a disadvantage sometimes encountered in 
laying large mains, a furrow can fre¬ 
quently be plowed on one side of the 
ditch and the water diverted. This is a 
great help. 
Size of Tile. —It is hard to give advice 
as to the size of tile to be used. For 
laterals with a reasonable fall two-inch 
is large enough for most places. In quick¬ 
sand three-inch or larger should be used. 
For very long laterals some larger tiles 
on the lower end would be advisable. For 
mains I should say a three-inch main 
would drain up to five acres, a four-inch 
10 acres, five-inch 15 acres, and a six- 
inch 25 acres. These sizes are large 
enough to carry off one-half inch of 
water in 24 hours on a grade of six 
inches per hundred feet. In case of inde¬ 
cision between two sizes of tile I should 
advise that the larger be used, as the 
larger part of the expense of tiling is in 
digging and filling the ditch, and it is 
better to use a little larger tile than to 
risk having to reopen and relay a drain. 
ALBERT DE GRAFF. 
The teacher, who was giving the prim¬ 
ary class a nature talk, inquired: “John¬ 
nie. how does a bee sting?” Johnnie, a 
graduate from the school of experience, 
replied with emphasis, “Awful!”—Judge. 
“Jon ii ny,” the teacher asked, “can you 
tell me anything about Christopher Co¬ 
lumbus?” “He discovered America.” 
“Yes. What else did he do?” "I s’pose 
he went home and lectured about it.”— 
Chicago Record-Herald. 
A New York man in Boston was over¬ 
taken by hunger late one night. Me en¬ 
tered a quick lunch restaurant, perched 
himself atop of a stool, and said to the 
waiter: “Sinkers and coffee.” “Sinkers? 
Sinkers?” said the waiter. “To what do 
you refer, sir?” “Sinkers are doughnuts 
in New York,” the customer explained. 
“Oh, I beg your pardon,” replied the 
waiter. “Here we always refer to them 
as submarines.”—New York Tribune. 
JO/’TED 
The Energizer of Business 
I N a metropolitan power¬ 
house there must be gen¬ 
erators large enough to fur¬ 
nish millions of lights and 
provide electrical current 
for thousands of cars and 
factories. 
Each monster machine 
’ with the power of tens of 
thousands of horses is en¬ 
ergized by an unobtrusive 
little dynamo, which is 
technically known as an 
“exciter.’’ 
This exciter by its elec¬ 
tric impulse through all 
the coils of the generator 
brings the whole mechan¬ 
ism into life and activity. 
A similar service is per¬ 
formed for the great agen¬ 
cies of business and in¬ 
dustry by the telephones 
of the Bell System. They 
carry the currents of com¬ 
munication everywhere to 
energize our intricate social 
and business mechanism. 
United for universal 
service, Beil Telephones 
give maximum efficiency 
to the big generators of 
production and commerce. 
American Telephone and Telegraph Company 
And Associated Companies 
One Policy One System Universal Service 
FOR SALE-Agricultural Lime 
selected forkod lump lime, bulk, 95$ to 98$ pure lime, 
$5.60; hydrated liuie, paper sacks, $7.30 net ton: 
car lots, delivered any point between Buffalo and 
New York on tiie main lino of Li. V., N. V. C., 
W. S., O. & W., IL. & W., and Erie R. r! 
J. W. BAI.l.ARD CO., Binghamton, N. Y. 
' ens draft nearly jfil 
60%. , Don't rut 
fields or roads, n jfl A \ 
Wo also furnish f |\ 1 
Electric Steel S I VB 
I wagon. Wheels can 
B dry out or rot. Send for 
■k froe Look of facts and proofs. 
fk Electric Wheel Co., J 
48 Kim Street, or 
»T«1— IJulnej, 111. -f/T 
Wheel 
depend largely on how the crop Is planted. 
Every skipped hill Is a loss In time, fertilizer 
and soil. Every double wastes valuable seed. 
It means $5 to $50 per acre extra profit if all hills 
are planted, one piece in each. That is why 
IRQNA6E Planters 
often pay for themselves In one season on small 
acreage. They also plant straight, at right depth. 12 
New angle steel tame and 
steel seed hopper. With or 
without fertilizer distrib¬ 
utor. Ask your dealer to 
show you this Planter and 
write us lor booklet,' '100 
Per Cent Potato Plant¬ 
ing' ' and copy of IronAge 
Farm and Garden News. 
BATEMAN M’F’G CO. 
Box 1025 Grenloch, N. J. 
FAIRBANKS “BULL DOG” ENGINES 
Write for Prices and Terms 
“Bull Dog” Engines 1to 16 H. P. 
Vertical Engines 8 to 60 H. P. 
GAS, GASOLENE, or KEROSENE 
Equipped with Batteries or Magneto 
The best engine for any purpose; Water 
Systems, Pumps, Hoists, Sprayers, Saws, 
Concrete Mixers, Stone Crushers, Electric 
Light Outfits, etc. 
Portable, Semi-Portable, and Stationary Types 
Made up to the Fairbanks standard and 
backed by the Fairbanks Guarantee. 
Bulletin No. 28-R describes them. Copy 
upon request. 
Albany, N. Y. 
Ball imore, Md. 
Boston, Mass. 
Buffalo, N. Y. 
THE FAIRBANKS COMPANY 
Hartford, Conn. 
New Orleans. La, 
Paterson, N. J, 
Philadelphia, Pa, 
NEW YORK 
Pittsburgh, Pa. 
Providence. R. 1. 
Syracuse, N. Y. 
Washington D. C. 
London, England 
Glasgow, Scotland 
Hamburg Germany 
Paris, France 
