'I'i-ItC RURAb MEW •YORKER 
261 
NOTES AND COMMENTS. 
A lfalfa as green manure.— 
I think that D. W. I.. page 124, 
will find that Alfalfa sown on wheat in 
Spring will be smothered out by the 
ragweed and crab grass growth, as the 
young Alfalfa is not strong enough to 
combat with weeds, and we have always 
found the late Summer or early Fall 
sowing best. Then too. I think that for 
sowing on the tomato fields the annual 
Crimson or Scarlet clover is far better, 
and gives results more quickly. For a 
catch crop on tomato and melon fields 
<>ur growers have found nothing equal to 
Crimson clover. It completes its growth 
in a short period, and can be used at once 
for corn or other hoed crops when the 
Alfalfa would not have made growth 
enough to compete with it. 
Apples Without Pruning. —Down 
in the Piedmont country of North Caro¬ 
lina there is an old gentleman very much 
interested in fruit growing, and one of 
rhe most successful men I have ever 
known for keeping apples. lie has an 
apple orchard that has never been 
pruned, and I wish that Mr. Brown 
could see his trees. They are big bushes 
branching from the ground and a mass 
of wood, and have never done much 
pruning for themselves. His trees make 
some fruit, but badly colored and not 
the crops he could make if the surplus 
wood growth was properly removed. I 
would far rather direct the growth by 
judicious pruning. 
Asparagus. —Trucker, Jr., is right in 
regard to manuring asparagus, for what 
is needed after cutting stops is a strong 
growth to make good crowns for the next 
cutting season. I cut the tops and burn 
rhem mainly to destroy the seed and pre¬ 
vent seedlings coming up in the rows. 
1 have also found the same thing he men¬ 
tions in regard to the Copenhagen Mar¬ 
ket cabbage. It will not do for Fall 
sowing and setting, for it will surely run 
ro seed. It is certainly not as early as 
the Early Jersey Wakefield, but near the 
-time season with the Charleston Wake¬ 
field and larger. And then rabbits! And 
we have here a close season for the pests 
solely for the benefit of the idle fellows 
with gun and dogs to hunt in the Fall. 
If the whole season was open these pests 
would still be too plentiful. What is 
needed is a removal of the protection to 
rabbits and here to turkey buzzards, 
which carry the hog cholera, as I have 
proved by costly experience. 
w. r. MASSEY. 
Seed Corn. 
W OULD it be safe to use corn for 
seed that has been kept in crib with 
regular corn crop? I neglected to 
separate and dry the seed corn. The 
corn appears to be preserved perfectly, 
and ears are such good specimens that I 
am anxious to use them if it is practical. 
Would you shell the corn at this time and 
put in boxes protected from mice, or 
would it be best to suspend them in crib 
and shell later? w. E. F. 
Highland, N. Y. 
If the corn is in good condition we 
f'e no reason why you might not select 
good specimen ears from the crib. It 
really makes no difference whether you 
shell your corn now or at the time you 
plant, as far as the vitality of the seed 
is concerned. It might be well to shell 
now. and put it in boxes where the mice 
cannot get at the corn. Test the corn 
before shelling. Test it on general prin¬ 
ciples, and save only those ears that 
show the greatest vitality and the larg¬ 
est percentage of germination. This 
would mean possibly sorting out twice as 
much seed, or even three times the 
amount you would want to use, and 
then using only the higher testing 
ears. You probably know about the 
“rag doll” way of testing. This is made 
of strips of sheeting eight inches wide 
and three to five feet long. A black pen¬ 
cil mark should be made lengthwise in 
the middle of the strip. Cross marks at 
right angles should be made, giving good- 
sized squares. Each square should be 
numbered, and each ear from which sam¬ 
ples are taken should be numbered to cor¬ 
respond with the squares from one up¬ 
ward. A half dozen kernels should be 
taken from different parts of the ear and 
placed on the square for that ear. The 
samples may then be rolled up, and placed 
in water for two hours. After this the 
Iowa plan is to overturn a tub on these 
samples and at the end of five davs the 
.samples, should be inspected. All ears 
in which the six kernels are not strong, 
in germination should be discarded. If 
the “rag dolls” are placed under tub or 
something else, it should be observed 
that there should be no ventilation, and 
that the samples tested should not ne¬ 
cessarily be submitted to violent changes 
of temperature. One should be careful 
in rolling up the seed that the kernels 
do not become mixed. 
Cutworms and Sowbugs. 
C UTWORMS in the greenhouse are 
a terrible pest, devastating carna¬ 
tions, Chrysanthemums, and a variety of 
.other plants. A correspondent of the 
Florists’ Review says that poisoned bran, 
often used when outdoor crops are at¬ 
tacked, was a failure in the greenhouse. 
A trial was made with poisoned cornmeal. 
and this proved wonderfully efficacious. 
The cornmeal is mixed with Paris green, 
just enough to color, and scattered 
among the infested plants. Watering 
should be avoided for six or eight hours 
before and after the poison is scattered. 
For destroying sowbugs or wood-lice, 
which are often a great nuisance in hot¬ 
beds, as well as greenhouses, poisoned rye 
flour is best. Mix two parts rye flour, two 
parts sugar and one part Paris green. 
Mix only enough to use at one time, as 
it cakes and deteriorates by standing. 
Scatter the mixture along the top of the 
edge-board of a greenhouse bed, or on 
narrow boards or laths across the soil in 
a frame or hotbed. The board must be 
dry. or the mixture becomes too lumpy 
for the sowbug to eat. An amazing num¬ 
ber will be killed. People seeking knowl¬ 
edge regarding a sowbug infestation often 
turn to a book on entomology, and are 
somewhat puzzled to find no reference to 
the creature. The reason is. of course, 
that the sowbug is not an insect, but a 
terrestrial crustacean, an humble relative 
of the crabs and lobsters. 
“That policeman is too conscientious 
to be a gardener.” "What do you mean?” 
“He arrested the growth of a vine on 
his house when he found it was a porch- 
climber.”—Baltimore American. 
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Get our Try-On, money-back proposition. Money 
cheerfully refunded i f you are not entirely satis¬ 
fied. Write today for illus¬ 
trated Free bopk, “Alu¬ 
minum the Sole of 
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| Racine Aluminum Shoe Co. 
Oepi. 61 Racine, Wis. 
SPORICIDE 
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in oats. Guarant’d 
Simple to treat. 
Sent direct by parcel post where we have no agent. 
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AGRICULTURAL LIME 
BULK AND SACKED GROUND LIMESTONE 
Also Hydrated, Bulk. Burnt and Ground Burnt Lime. 
Largest Capacities and Prompt Deliveries. 
JAMES E. GASTON, Cochranton, Penn’a 
INCREASE THE VALUE OF YOUR FARM with Pulverized 
Rock Phosphate, HORSE HEAD brand. Mix 2 lbs. per 
head per day and increase the value of yourmanure 
/5°o. Write us for delivered car load price. 
HASEROT LIME 8 PHOSPHATE CO., - CLEVELAND, 0 
LIME—LIME—LIME 
YOUR LAND NEEDS 
“WYANDOTTE CHIEF” 
HY1>KATKI> AGRICULTURAL LIME 
Write us for prices 
THE NATIONAL LIME & STONE COMPANY 
CAREY, OHIO 
“Corn is Dear” 
A Read what a Great Farm Newspaper 
says about the 1915 outlook 
m 
(!) The Breeder’s Gazette of jan, 21, 1915, 
A says editorially; “If there ever was a time 
^ in our agricultural history when bumper 
yields should be assiduously sought, it is 
in this year of 1915. Wheat is high, and 
«IS at the present rate of export our surplus 
will soon be exhausted. Corn is dear, and 
i its comparative scarcity is one of the uu- 
^ derlyiug causes of our present business 
^ depression. Oats are moving at strong 
$ values. . . The place of good commercial 
its fertilizers as an efficient aid to increased 
y} production under certain conditions is too 
I firmly established to admit of discussion.” 
k 
| Use Bradley’s Fertilizers 
k 
Plant food and grain crops tliis year and 
by making: every acre produce its utmost 
jli reduce the unit cost. This country must do 
her share toward furnishing- food for the 
'lS world in 1915 and it will pay the Amer- 
ican farmer to do so. You can produce 
% your crops most cheaply with Bradley’s 
fix Fertilizers. They not only increase the 
fit yield, but they produce crops that ripen 
earlier and that are of better quality. 
|||| Send for free booklet. 
The American Agricultural Chemical Co,, 
(IS 92 State Street, Boston 2 Rector Street, New York 
^ . Buffalo, .Philadelphia. Baltimore, Etc, 
VI 
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¥ 
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_ Jj! 
Between now and seeding time, 10 tons of Cale¬ 
donia Marl (Lime Carbonate) could absorb, from 
your stable floor,$40.00 worth of ammonia and pot¬ 
ash— in addition to acting as deodorizer and germi¬ 
cide. This Marl (Nature’s Lime) could then be put 
on your soil to increase each acre’s productivity $15 
a year, as it did for Mr. L. J. Rounds, for instance. 
Write us to-day for explanatory booklet, etc. 
800 MARINE BANK BUILDING, BUFFALO, IN. V. (CALEDONIA IV 
MARL BRANCH\ 
Every Farmer 
if he is a Real, Live , Enterprising , 
Progressive Farmer, looks for¬ 
ward—and works—and plans— 
THE BIG CROP 
To this end he will toil and sacrifice without stint— 
but often overlooks the one important thing—the 
RIGHT Fertilizer. 
Hubbard’i 
ON 
jjT Fertilizers 
contain the very elements that your worn-out fields lack, to put them 
in the “BIG CROP” class. Let us tell you about them. Will you? 
Send or write today for Hubbard’s “Bone Base” Almanac for 1915, which 
contains much valuable information about soil, fertilizers and other farm sub¬ 
jects. Sent free to any address. 
THE ROGERS & HUBBARD C0„ Address Dept. A, Middletown, Conn. 
Office and Works, Portland, Conn. 
