1360 
November 21, 
start a fire. And. lastly, my neighbor and I consider 
that we have each added at least $1,000 to the value 
of our farms by the service. I am so proud of our 
success that 1 am anxious to see others try it. 
Massachusetts. Frederick irving anderson. 
R. N.-Y.—The danger in electric wires, which has 
been referred to in our pages, exists where leakage 
from high-powered systems has charged wires or 
other metals to a dangerous degree. The thing to 
bear in mind in every electrical system is that all 
wires must be fully insulated in accordance with in¬ 
surance requirements. Also, there is a remote dan¬ 
ger involved in contact with metal (for example, 
-standing on a hot-air register! while turning on a 
light or handling a telephone. If. by any accident, 
the appliance touched had become highly charged, 
one might thus complete a dangerous circuit. 
WHAT FORM OF LIME? 
T LIKE very much what you said about the use of 
■ lime in one of your recent issues. This evil geuer- 
I ation is “seeking after a sign.” It wants a recipe 
for profitable farming, so that it can do it with 
eyes shut, just as an indifferent cook follows a recipe 
book, and the farm institutes and county advisers and 
“social uplift” philanthropists are endeavoring to fur¬ 
nish them recipes for their work. Nobody is paying 
much attention to teaching the farmer to think for him¬ 
self and apply general principles, instead of cook book 
recipes, to the management of his farm. e. 
What we said was that a farmer starting out to 
use lime ought to think and figure for himself. There 
are "stone” lime, “quick" lime, "lump" and "caustic 
lime—all the same. They represent the limestone 
taken from the quarry and burned in kilns. When 
this kind of lime takes up water it "slakes." and is 
variously known as burned lime, agricu’tural lime, 
"lime” or hydrate of lime. When the limestone is 
crushed or ground without being burned, it is known 
as ground limestone or carbonate of lime. "Hydrat¬ 
ed" lime is the quick or lump lime ground to a pow¬ 
der. and carefully slaked by means >1 a spray of 
water, so that every particle is acted upon. The 
chief difference between slaked and hydrated lime is 
that the latter is very much more carefully treated 
with water. 
Now Hie agents who sell hydrated lime will teli 
you their lime is the only one to buy. In the West 
we have a group of authorities .who say you should 
use nothing but ground limestone. Some of them are 
quite hitter about this, and are almost ready to send 
a man to jail for differing with them on this ad¬ 
vice. Our idea is that a farmer should figure it out 
for himself. On our own farm we use about 10 tons 
of lime each year, and we buy the form which gives 
us the cheapest pound of lime. We get figures on 
hydrated, ground limestone and slaked lime. It is 
some distance from a lime-kiln and the freight is 
high. The manufacturers give a guaranteed analy¬ 
sis of their lime—we would not touch it if they did 
not. Then we take the price of each lime delivered 
at our station, the guaranteed analysis, and find how 
much a pound of lime costs. In order to get equal re¬ 
sults we must use two pounds of ground limestone to 
one of slaked lime. Our soil is hard and tough, and 
we plow under green crops each year, and an active 
form of lime does best. We find that slaked lime, un¬ 
der these conditions, is cheaper than ground lime¬ 
stone. Therefore we buy the slaked, and pay no at¬ 
tention to the people who say we should buy ground 
limestone or.“hydrated” because others do. The 
quick or lump lime would he cheaper. I ut our labor¬ 
ers do not handle it well. The only safety for a far¬ 
mer is to study and find out what he needs, and then 
figure for himself. This thing of depending upon 
others to do our thinking and figuring for us is all 
wrong. We pay them for doing it. We never can 
fie free until Yve learn to do it ourselves. 
DOUBTS THE BUSY BEE’S BUSINESS. 
I FIND a number of things to criticize in the arti¬ 
cle on bees (page 1233). The experiment on the 
"50-acre orchard about nine miles north of Me¬ 
dina.” proves nothing; or rather only that something 
increased the yield and improved the quality of the 
fruit. It is my belief that the increased yield and 
the improved quality Yvould have come if the bees 
had been sent 50 miles from the orchard and the 
pruning and spraying had been done as carefully. 
In our own orchards Yve have had nearly perfect pol¬ 
lination many years Yvlien Yve did not see a bee in 
the orchard during the Yvhole time of blossoming. 
Last Spring we were in the cherry orchard Yvhen it 
was in full bloom, and the matter Yvas brought up 
by a man who had just published an article on the 
subject. In 15 or 20 minutes' search we saw per¬ 
haps a dozen bees, and I doubt if there Yvere 500 
bees in the block (about 1 V-i acres), but Yve sold 
move than 10% tons of cherried from the same block 
the following July. To ho sure, there were many 
dies and other insects about the flowers, probably a 
THE KUKAfi NEW-VOKKER 
dozen or more for each floYver all the time. For Ibis 
reason Yve cannot feel that the honey bee is of special 
interest to the apple groYver in this section. 
Wayne Co., N. Y Alfred c. weed. 
KAINIT AND WHITE GRUBS. 
I have seen it stated that kainit, sown on land in¬ 
tended for strawberries, Yvas good to keep away the 
white grubs. Could you give me any information on 
that point, and what effect on land planted with pota¬ 
toes? F. j. 
Massachusetts. 
This suggestion quite often appears in print, hut 
there is little to it. In order to have effect upon the 
In the Syracuse, N. Y.. 1’crj.ic Market. Fig. 5ns. 
insects it will he necessary to use so - much of the 
kainit or salt that it Yvould he unprofitable, or the 
excess would partly sterilize the soil. Many exper¬ 
iments have demonstrated this. We should not think 
of planting strawberries on land where white grubs 
are known to he had. 
SEEDING OVER A POTATO FIELD. 
I HAVE just finished digging a throo-ao.ro field of po¬ 
tatoes. It is too late to seed it to grass, or to sow 
a cover crop of any kind, as I wish to seed it to 
grass or clover of some kind next year. 'The field is 
as level as a floor, and the soil is fairly good. I dug the 
potatoes with a large digger, which has left the groun 1 
A Riot of Pennsylvania Rye. Eig. 589. 
more mellow than if it had been plowed. I think that I 
shall let it lie as it is until Spring, then disk it. and har¬ 
row it thoroughly, to kill out weed seed, liming it in the 
meantime : then sow it to Yvhat? Is there any grass or 
clover that I could sow under above condition, that 
would bring me any crop next year, and remain as a 
permanent meadow? h. J. i. 
We should follow one of two plans. Let the soil 
alone this Fall. In Spring lime it Yvell and chop it 
up Yvith the disk. Then suyv oats and Canada peas. 
You may seed Timothy. Red-top and clover Yvitlt the 
oats and peas if you like, making a thin seeding of 
the grain. In this case cut the oats and peas early 
and cure for hay. The grass Yvill then come on and 
make a fair, permanent stand; or you can soyv the 
oats and peas alone, thicker than you would if using 
the grass seed with them. In this case cut the oats 
and peas for hay and then plow the stubble, fit the 
soil well, and seed to grass alone in late August or 
September. P>y seeding the oats and peas alone and 
(hen seeding to grass you will get more hay and a 
more permanent and stronger meadoYv, but you will 
have to do twice as much work at fitting and seed¬ 
ing. 
TWO PICTURES. 
T HE pictures on this page show a scene in the 
Syracuse, N. Y.. public market, and a rye field 
in Pennsylvania. The Syracuse market is pa¬ 
tronized quite freely by farmers, who drive in with 
their goods and sell, either direct to the consumers 
or to dealers as they prefer. In many parts of the 
country this public market has come to be a great, 
help to farmers who arc near enough to drive di¬ 
rectly in Yvith their goods. Many large towns are 
still without the public market. Every uoyv and then 
we see in the papers statements to the effect, that cer¬ 
tain of those markets have proved failures and 
should be given up. In every surli case that yvo lntY'e 
investigated, we find these reports have started from 
the grocers and butchers, and with no particular 
foundation in fact, and in all cases which Yve have 
investigated, the farmers themselves are greatly in 
favor of the market and would fight hard to re¬ 
tain it. 
The other picture shows a sample of rye groYvn by 
J. P. Campbell, of Crawford Co., Pa. This is cer¬ 
tainly a fine sample of rye. We find many farmers 
who know nothing about this tough old grain, and 
who. not having grown it, have formed Hie idea that 
it is an inferior crop, not worth bothering with. In 
our own farming, rye is one of the most Y r aluable 
crops we have. Near the larger towns and cities 
there is a fine market for the straw, and the grain 
also sells readily. - or could he ground with corn to 
make a good feed for work horses. Certainly the rye 
shown in this picture is big enough. We have great 
success with rye as a coY r er crop, and YY"e throw a 
quantity of seed rye in Yvith every other cover crop 
seed in the Fall. While it adds little or nothing to 
the soil except organic matter, it gives a lot of that, 
and on many of our hard top soils, this is just exact¬ 
ly what Yve need. 
WHY IS THIS SOIL CHEAP? 
T AM sending you to-day by express a bag of potatoes. 
(>n one acre we dug 500 bushels, 50 per cent, like 
| ones sent you. Can you explain Yvhy it is that land 
like this is offered at from $15 to $20 per acre with 
fair improvements, and no takers, while through the 
Middle West and Pacific Coast it is selling for $100 to 
$125 per acre, and sometimes Yvith no improvements? 
What is Yvrong Yvith this section? 
Schoharie Co., N. Y. JAS. c. Caskey. 
The potatoes Yvere large and fine. One of them 
weighed 41 ounces—most of them Yveiglied over a 
pound. They were remarkably dry and "mealy" for 
such large tubers. At least a dozen families sampled 
them, and while the larger tubers had “holloYv 
hearts." they Yvould rank as high-class eating pota¬ 
toes. In another letter Mr. Caskey adds this: 
Potatoes were planted on side hill facing north ; sod 
turned over .”>0 days before planting. One ton of fertil¬ 
izer yyris used ; never sprayed; soil was mealy, like the 
potatoes when boiled with their jackets on. There is 
considerable stone on land and shale rock. Oats turned 
out. -10 bushels per acre; barley 50; buckwheat 3b. 
He may Yvell ask why such laud sells at $20 or less 
per acre with few if any buyers! Xn our own section 
these potatoes would quickly sell at one dollar per 
bushel, and such a crop would he worth at least $400 
per acre at a cost of perhaps $00. Land Yvhich sells 
for $125 per acre in the Middle West will not average 
crops which bring $50 per acre. Yet here is $20 land 
producing 500 bushels of potatoes or 50 bushels of 
barley. This land is within short hauls of several 
large manufacturing towns. With modern tools and 
appliances—think Yvhat a first-class farmer could do 
on such soil. Yet it has little sale. The trouble can¬ 
not be in the soil or in the market. Can it he in the 
spirit or lack of spirit of the people? 
What are the dum-dum bullets Yve read about in 
war reports? A soft bullet which expands on enter¬ 
ing the body, making a hideous wound. First made at 
the Bengal Arsenal at Calcutta. A dum-dum speech 
is one that expands in side a man’s head—makes him 
think! 
Keep away from the hen! Keep away from the 
hen ! We print this advice to the know-it-all men Yvho 
think because some blowhard has been heard to claim 
that he makes fifty dollars a bird they can rush in with¬ 
out knowing a thing about hens and catch fortune right 
square on the Yving. 
