890 
THE RURAL, >-» EW-YORKER 
Used on Largest and 
Most Expensive 
Buildings 
City Hall, 
Philadelphia, Pa. 
Hoofed With J-M 
Asbestos Hoofing 
This great build¬ 
ing, erected at a cost 
of $25,000,000.00, is 
covered with J-M 
Asbestos Roofing. Surely, a 
roofing that is good enough 
for this monumental structure will answer your requirements. 
Hundreds of the largest and finest buildings of all types 
are covered with J-M Asbestos Roofing—because it is the 
roofing of proven permanence. 
J-M Asbestos Roofing is all-mineral. It is composed of several 
layers of Asbestos (rock) felt cemented together with Trinidad Lake 
Asphalt—the greatest waterproofing substance known. 
It contains nothing to rot, rust, melt, crack or deteriorate. Never 
requires graveling, coating, or any form of preservative. Its first cost 
is the last cost. Cheaper than tin, iron, slate or shingles—and the 
cheapest-per-vear roofing on the market. Gives perfect fire protection. 
Adapted to any climate. Keeps buildings warm in Winter 
and cool in Summer. 
Furnished in flat sheets or in rolls. It can be applied by any 
handyman. J-M Roofing Cleats, packed in each roll, make absolutely 
watertight laps and give the entire roof a handsome white appear¬ 
ance. Suitable for any type of building. 
Sold direct if your dealer can’t supply. Write nearest Branch 
for sample of the wonderful Asbestos Rock and Book No. oils 
H. W. JOHNS-MANVILLE CO. 
Albany Chicago Detroit 
Baltimore Cincinnati Indianapolis Jr n’rcVhC 
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Dallas Los Angeles ‘ ** * New Orleans Pittsburgh Syracuse 
THE CANADIAN H. W. JOHNS-MANVILLE CO., LIMITED 
Vancouver 
Winnipeg 
DEALERS WANTED — Choice territory still open. 
Quick sales. Liberal profits. Satisfied customers. 
3122 
m 
MSSSSC 
can clear an acre or more 
of stumps a day. No stumps 
can resist the Hercules. 
Doubles land value—enables 
to make £1200.00 on 40 acres 
the first year afterstumps are 
out—and £750.00 in crops 
every year after. Get the 
proof. Why not 
Write Us Now 
Book tells all the 
many 
photos and letters 
from owners—tells all 
about the many Her¬ 
cules features. We'll 
also quote you a special money-saving price 
proposition that will interest von. Address 
HERCULES MFG. CO. 1 30 22d Si., Contorvillo, Iowa 
Mower 
Write for 
free 
Catalog 
Honest Value in Rubber Footwear 
BALLS BAND 
The name " Bkll-Band " etands for dry, 
comfortable feet. It’s the trade mark of 
rubber footwear that eight million men 
recognize as the best they can buy. It 
gives them more days’ wear for dollars 
invested. 
Making good rubber footwear is no job 
for a careless man. The goods we make 
are going to get terrific hard wear, a nd 
we know it. We build 
•’Ball-Band" Footwear to 
stand that wear. 
Forty-five thousand dealers 
sell "Ball-Band" Rubber and 
Woolen Footwear. Look for 
the Red Ball on the goods and 
in the store windows. Your 
dealer will probably say as 
much for our boots as we do. 
If he can't supply you, write 
us and we’ll toll you who can. 
Write anyway for Free Illus¬ 
trated Booklet describing 
’’Ball-Band’’ Footwear. 
Mishawaka Woolen Mfg. Co. 
333 Water St., Mishawaka, Ind, 
"The House That Pays 
Millions for Quality “ 
CIDER PRESSES 
The Original Mt.Gilead Hydraulic Press 
produces more cider from less 
apples tnan any other and is 
a BIG MONEY MAKER. Sizes 
10 to 400 barrels daily. Also 
cider evaporators, apple-but¬ 
ter cookers, vinegar genera¬ 
tors, filters, etc. Fully guaran¬ 
teed. Write for catalog. 
HYDRAULIC PRESS MFG. CO. 
137 Lincoln Ave.. Mt. Gilead, Ohio. 
Or Room 118 L 39 Cortlandt St., New York, N, Y. 
Pot<3+o Profits /j 
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 
This machine has the one right cutting principle — 
center draft. Cutter bar Is directly in front of wheels 
— mows back and forth on one side of field in 
any direction. No side draft. Cut crop is left in 
standing position and cures rapidly. One-third sav¬ 
ing in time and labor. The Eureka Mower abolishes 
tedding and trampling of cut crop. It’s the ideal 
mower for orchard and working between rows. Will 
cut weeds in pastures and brush that no other 
mower will handle. 5 sizes for one or two horses. 
46 years on the market. Machines bought 30 
years ago, and used every 
year, still in use. Prompt jm*. 
shipments. Write to-day. JKJnr 
EUREKA MOWER CO.KflS 
Box 868, Utica, N. Y. NtU? 
ISON ACE 
100 Per Cent 
Planters 
often pay for themselves In one season on small 
acreage. They also plant straight, at right depth, 12 
to 24 inches apart, /f New angle steel frame and 
steel seed hopper. With or 
without fertilizer distrib¬ 
utor. Ask your dealer to 
show you this Planter and 
write us for booklet,’ '100 
Per Cent Potato Piant- 
r«f'”and copy of IronAge 
Farm and Garden News. 
BATEMAN M’F’G 00. 
Box 1025 Grenloch, N. 3. 
March 7, 
SELLING OAK TWIGS. 
The picture shown gives an idea of 
a new industry which is being developed 
in southern New Jersey. This is the 
gathering of oak twigs containing the 
leaves. These twigs are gathered and 
tied into bales as shown in the picture, 
and in this way the oak twigs are handled 
and transported. There is a large trade 
in this material, the twigs being exported 
to Europe, where they bring a fair price. 
They are used for brewing into a tea. 
used as a medicine for the treatment of 
mulch system on a limestone or alkaline 
soil is likely to produce results almost the 
opposite of that prddm-ed on a naturally 
acid soil. If this view of the matter 
proves to be correct, the use of liberal 
applications of lime to apple tree mulch 
in orchards growing upon a soil with 
acid tendencies is likely to be necessary 
in the development of an efficient mulch 
system on such soils. When practicable 
the addition of a little manure is also 
suggested as a means of supplying the 
mulch with a vigorous inoculation of the 
LOADING OAK TWIGS. 
colds. It is said that the use of this tea 
is-quite common in Europe, not only 
among the Hebrews and the Poles, but 
many other inhabitants use this decoc¬ 
tion, thinking that it makes a valuable 
medicine or tonic. At any rate the 
gathering of these leaves makes a new 
horticultural industry, and is the means 
of giving fairly profitable work to a num¬ 
ber of people. 
LIME AND THE MULCH PROBLEM. 
Our readers remember the article on 
formation of acid solids, given on page 
I 1. This was the first part of a review 
of some remarkable experiments by Prof. 
Frederick V. Coville, who has given a 
most thorough study to this subject. The 
article described the formation of acids 
in the soil, and the , formation of leaf 
mold. We shall give soon a further dis¬ 
cussion of this matter. In the meantime 
Prof. Coville gives the following sugges¬ 
tion regarding the effect of a mulch in 
an orchard. This will be a new thought 
to many of our readers, who have not 
considered the true effects of lime upon 
the soil. This is well worth considering, 
as Prof. Coville is our highest authority 
in matters of this kind. 
For several years I have been much 
interested in your articles on the suc¬ 
cessful mulch system of handling apple 
trees practiced by Mr. Grant Ilitellings 
hear Syracuse. Your article on this sub¬ 
ject, published on page 1717. leads me to 
make a comment which I have long had 
in mind. 
Five reasons are assigned in your re¬ 
view of Prof. Hedrick’s conclusions, for 
the success of the mulching system on 
Mr. Ilitchings’ own place. The question 
arises in my mind whether there is not 
ti sixth reason perhaps more fundamental 
than any of the other five. My question 
| is: “Is not the soil of Mr. Ilitchings’ 
orchard a limestone soil, and if so, is 
not his success due largely to the fact 
that the underlying soil carries the de¬ 
composition of his mulch through the acid 
stage into the alkaline stage, with all the 
consequent stimulation of nitrification 
and increase in fertility, and are not some 
of the failures of the same mulch system 
in other localities due to the natural 
acidity of the underlying soil and the 
suspension of decomposition in the mulch 
before it has passed from the acid to the 
alkaline stage?” 
You will remember the change from 
acidity to alkalinity in the progress of 
the decomposition of leaves which I de¬ 
scribed in my paper on “The Formation 
of Leafmold,” and from your reading of 
that paper you will readily appreciate 
that in the absence of an alkaline soil 
underneath the decomposing mulch there 
may easily be produced a permanent acid 
condition of the rotting mulch itself, re¬ 
sulting in a practical failure of the sys¬ 
tem. 
It seems to me that one of the direct 
lessons to be drawn from my observations 
on the formation of leafmold is that a 
beneficial organisms of decomposition. 
Pndor this plan the mulch is treated es¬ 
sentially as a compost and that is the 
way in which we really ought to regard it. 
FREDERICK V. COVILLE. 
HEATERS TO PROTECT CUCUMBERS. 
Can you give me any information in 
regard to lighting the early frost in Fall? 
Is the smoke smudge a success, and would 
it bo a good way to save expense to 
lay a layer of bricks about two feet 
square with an air space and a rim to 
hold the smoldered coals in place a good 
way? Would it be enough if I only used 
sawdust, which I can get for nothing, 
or mix it with something else, and what? 
How far apart should each fireplace be 
from another? Do you think ready-built 
field hearths would be better? I want to 
try them in a field of late cucumbers. 
Ilamsey, N. J. v. p. 
I think that one of the types of orchard 
heaters would be greatly superior to any 
attempt at smudging by miming such ma¬ 
terial as sawdust. It is an open ques¬ 
tion. however, whether the practice of 
using heaters would be profitable in the 
growing of late cucumbers. 
Our experience in the use of orchard 
heaters in our poach orchard at Vineland, 
for the past two years, has not given us 
results that would warrant us in recom¬ 
mending them for eastern conditions. 
This does not mean, however, that we 
were not able to keep up the tempera¬ 
tures. 'Plie story is too long to give in a 
brief reply. I can say, however, that I 
believe that it would be necessary to use 
about 125 heaters, of two to three gal¬ 
lons capacity, to be certain of preventing 
injury by cold in the late Fall. These 
heaters would cost from 20 to 40 cents 
each, according to the type, and one 
wo„ld consume 200 to 200 gallons of oil 
per acre in a single night if the cold 
extended over a number of hours. 
Fuel oil, which is recommended for 
these heaters, cost us six cents per gal¬ 
lon. last Spring, by the barrel. These 
facts may serve in a general way to give 
one some idea of what the expense might 
be. In our experiments a heater of the 
three-gallon Hamilton type showed to ad¬ 
vantage. especially with respect to the 
cover, which did not blow off when there 
was considerable wind. The covers of 
th>> lard-pail type were always blown off 
to a greater or less degree and scattered 
about the orchard, so that some water 
got into the oil during rainstorms. 
One could undoubtedly raise the tem¬ 
perature several degrees over an acre 
of cucumbers by the use of orchard heat¬ 
ers. but to my mind the real question is 
whether enough extra money could be se¬ 
cured for the late crop of cucumbers to 
pay for the trouble. It might be a fact 
also that the cucumbers would not grow 
and develop as they should because of 
cool temperatures during the day at that 
season of the year, even though no actual 
frost occurred. M. A. BLAKE. 
