THE RURAb NEW-YORKER 
895 
The Home Acre 
Before You Sow 
Your Winter Wheat 
—read this: 
“If in some way I could manage the affairs of men for one 
year; if in some way the land and the people were mine and I 
could fix the land and control the thoughts and actions of the 
folks, here’s what I would do: I’d put back into the cold, hard, 
worn-out soils, the leaves and the roots and the hundreds of 
kinds of vegetable growths that have been farmed out in the 
past century. When this was done I would have a rich soil. 
Then on that soil I would put tillers, . . . and enable 
them to know that the soil is a storehouse of plant food and 
that they can’t continually take crops out of it and put little 
or nothing back.”—R. A. Hayne, in National Stockman and 
Farmer y June 26th, 1915. 
Although you can’t put back the vegetation and crops of 
the past century, you can put into your soil 
E. Frank Coe Fertilizers 
(The Business Farmers' Standard for over 57 years) 
There is one more thing that you should 1 do before you sow 
your winter wheat. You ought to read “Winter Wheat 
Production,” a practical pamphlet on profitable wheat growing 
by a practical and progressive expert. A copy is yours for 
the asking, without charge, of course. Send a postal card to¬ 
day. This is an opportunity to make one cent earn you in¬ 
creased profits of many dollars. 
THE COE-MORTIMER COMPANY 
51 CHAMBERS ST., NEW YORK CITY 
Notes from a Maryland Garden. 
Early Potatoes. —The early Irish po¬ 
tatoes are now on the table. These were 
grown from second crop seed grown in 
Northampton Co., Ya., and were about 
the cleanest Cobblers I have seen, for 
most of the Cobblers are badly mixed. 
Owing to the constant rains the tops have 
grown to an enormous size, but we had, 
in addition to a broadcast application last 
Fall of stable manure, which lay on the 
surface all Winter to rot, a good dressing 
of a fertilizer containing five per cent, of 
potash, and hence we are getting pota¬ 
toes as well as tops. I have had numer¬ 
ous complaints from correspondents who 
use stable manure only on their gardens, 
that they get big tops and few potatoes. 
It is simply an excess of nitrogen and a 
deficiency of phosphate and potash. Sup¬ 
ply these and the big tops are only an ad¬ 
vantage. But the rains have compelled 
more frequent sprayings to keep the 
poison on the plants for the benefit of the 
beetles. And not only on the potatoes but 
on the eggplants one has to keep up the 
fight against the Colorado beetles, for the 
old beetles eat the eggplant leaves as well 
as deposit their eggs in the orange-col¬ 
ored masses on the under side. I head 
them off a great deal by looking for the 
egg masses and crushing them. 
Sweet Corn. —The little Golden Ban¬ 
tam corn will be ready for the table by 
the first of July, and though it does not 
amount to much here it gives us the first 
taste of a really good sweet corn, and is 
soon out of the way and gives the space 
for something else. The Country Gen¬ 
tleman is following it very closely, 
though, of course, this cannot be rated 
as an early corn, yet planted at same time 
there is not a very wide space between 
the last of the Bantam and the first of 
the Country Gentleman, and then, by suc¬ 
cessive plantings the Country Gentleman 
is with us till frost, and the latest plant¬ 
ing is always the best because the boll 
worms do not bother it as they do the 
earlier ears. 
Tomatoes. —Earliaua, Bonny Best and 
John Baer tomatoes side by side seem to 
be having a race. All are loaded with to¬ 
matoes, and some now (June 18) show 
indications of changing to a paler color. 
John Baer and Bonny Best promise to 
come in nearly together, and so far I can 
see no difference in the fruits. They 
seem to be identical in every respect, but 
of course the ripened fruit must decide 
this. Earliaua, as usual, will probably 
come in ahead, and by the time I make 
more notes in the garden I expect there 
will be ripe fruit on some of the plants. 
Summer Flowers. —The wet weather 
seems to have had the effect of bringing 
on the Dahlias too rapidly, and they are 
trying to make Summer flowers, which 
are never their finest. In fact I am not 
sure but that we would get a better Fall 
bloom by pulling off all these untimely 
buds. There is one plant in my garden 
that gives us a great deal of pleasure and 
a wonderful display of flowers, and it is 
seldom grown too. This is the hardy or- 
Marguerite carnation-. I have a border of 
these which has been giving us a mass 
of flowers for the past four or five years. 
Being grown from seed there are, of 
course, some single flowers, but most of 
them are as large and double as the old 
style of greenhouse carnations were 30 
years ago, before carnations became such 
a rage, and were developed to their pres¬ 
ent character. Then, too, they are inoro 
fragrant than most of the greenhouse 
blooms, and I suppose that if we prac¬ 
ticed the greenhouse methods of disbud¬ 
ding we might get larger flowers. But we 
are content to get the mass of bloom for 
cutting. I have a lai-ge bed now set in 
the Crego Giant asters. This same bed 
was planted in asters two years ago, and 
in preparing it for planting I found quite 
a number of volunteer plants, showing 
how long the aster seed will keep good in 
the soil. These volunteer plants were 
saved and set in with the others which 1 
had raised this Spring, and they are now 
twice the size of the Spring-grown plants. 
I am interested in noting the flowering of 
these volunteers and seeing whether they 
will revert to the single form or w-ill still 
produce good double flowers. 
I have for several seasons been saving 
seed from the Zurich variety of scarlet 
Salvia. This is naturally about the 
earliest blooming of all the scarlet sages, 
and by saving seed annually from the 
first blooming plants and those of the best 
dwarf habit I have got the plants into 
very early blooming, and my beds of Sal¬ 
via are now covered with bloom, while 1 
see around me beds growing tall and rank 
and making as yet no bloom at all. I 
counted five long spikes of bloom in a 
plant the top of which is not more than 
six inches above the soil, and the spikes 
of flowers are twice as tall as the plant. 
That plant will furnish me the first selec¬ 
tion of seed. 
One of the most showy plants in my 
collection is Tecoma grandiflora, the Chi¬ 
nese trumpet flower. Trained on a stake 
and its branches falling over like a weep¬ 
ing tree and each terminated with a mass 
of its great orange-colored flowers, it 
makes the most showy plant of its sea¬ 
son as it blooms after all the shrubbery 
is done except the crape myrtles. I 
often feel sorry for those who live too far 
North for the crape myrtle, the lilac of 
midsummer, and far more showy and lon¬ 
ger lasting than any lilac. 
Those who like the beauty of the old 
Ailanthus or Paradise tree, but cannot 
abide the odor of the staminate flowers, 
should plant Cedrela Sinensis. This is a 
near relative to the Ailanthus, and even 
more graceful and makes no unpleasant 
odor. I have some trees planted a num¬ 
ber of years ago which are now develop¬ 
ing well. 
Two years ago I bought tubers of the 
new Emperor Gloxinias. These are hy¬ 
brids of Sinningia regina with the old 
Gloxinias. The first season I had a splen¬ 
did bloom. Last Summer they bloomed 
fairly well, but this Summer, with an 
enormous spread of foliage, they hardly 
seem inclined to bloom at all, and as I 
have depended on this to make the little 
greenhouse gay in Summer this is rather 
a disappointment, though the mass of foli¬ 
age is very beautiful. While the tubers 
have increased in size, and the plants re¬ 
markably vigorous we miss the flowers. 
Perhaps I have fed them too high. There 
are many things in plant life which we do 
not yet understand. w. F. massey. 
Destroying Ground Squirrels.— 
Your article on ground squirrels I would 
like to answer. Instead of strychnine or 
any other poison mixed with grain, I 
would suggest putting concentrated lye in 
their holes. It will drive them away in¬ 
stantly. It is not liable to be scratched 
out and eaten by any chicken or bird. 
Ohio. M. E. B. LANE. 
There are many small ds which can¬ 
not be farmed profitably. These may be 
convenient to water. By fencing them 
and seeding to rape, an acre of rape will 
support from 10 to a dozen hogs. The 
seed may be sown broadcast three to five 
or six pounds per acre. The rape may be 
sown any time during the Summer, and 
in from six to eight weeks will be ready 
for pasture. Where good forage is avail¬ 
able hogs may be produced far more 
cheaply than by confining them and feed¬ 
ing them grain. 
Persimmons In Pennsylvania.— I 
live here Southeastern Pennsylvania 
where Lehigh, Bucks, Montgomery and 
Berks Counties join. The native per¬ 
simmon grows wild here. Having for 
years lived in the South, I am very fond 
of the American and Japanese persim¬ 
mon. It seems almost impossible to 
transplant them successfully here, even 
young trees with plenty of fibrous roots. 
Do you, or some of your readers, know 
y/nether tin Josephine and Early Golden, 
improved varieties of native persimmons 
could be grown here? IIow far North 
will the To-Mo-Pan or Chinese persim¬ 
mon and the Kawikami, a hybrid of the 
Josephine and Japanese persimmon, suc¬ 
ceed ? I know the Japanese persimmon 
is quite tender as they would winterkill 
fbr me near Richmond, Va., but I have 
seen native persimmons down there that 
were equal to the Japanese in quality, 
larger than a hen’s egg and some entirely 
seedless. I would be glad to get any in¬ 
formation from your readers in regard to 
persimmons in Pennsylvania. 
Lehigh Co., Pa. joiin flick. 
Standard Recites For Ice Cream 
Makers, Wholesale and Retail, by Val 
Miller. This is a useful trade hand book, 
which will be helpful to dairymen and 
others developing an ice cream business. 
Equipment required, and suggestions fot 
pushing trade, are advised as well av 
methods of manufacture. Price $1.00 
Inoculated Alfalfa Soil 
75c. per 100 lb., or ten dollars per ton, F. O. Tt. cars. 
Send for free booklet “How to crow alfalfa." 
I)r. H. Somerville, Chest Springs. Cambria Co., Pa. 
D RAIN P> IRE 
Light Weight, Low Hauling and Installation Costs. 
Sold in carload lots. Interesting Trices. 
The Fibre Conduit Co., Orangeburg, N. Y. 
A Government Machine for Teating the Strength of Wood 
When the Government Tests Lumber 
It Studies Thousands of Different Pieces 
before reaching a conclusion. Did you ever know that the Govern¬ 
ment, after careful laboratory tests, found Southern Yellow Pine to have greater 
breaking strength than White Oak, and greater crushing strength than 
White Oak, Rock Elm, Hard Maple or Big Shellbark Hickory? 
That is fact, surprising though it may be. 
Here are the Government’s figures, made by the experts of the 
Forest Service, in comparing various commercial woods: 
Woods Tested Breaking Strength 
LONG LEAF YELLOW PINE.8,630 
White Oak.8,160 
Post Oak.7,380 
White Elm.6,950 
Silver Maple.5,820 
Woods Tested Crushing Strength 
LONG LEAF YELLOW PINE.4,280 
Shellbark Hickory.3,890 
Hard Maple.3,850 
Rock Elm.3,740 
White Oak.3,510 
And in addition to those superior qualities, Southern Yellow Pine 
lumber costs much less than any of the others. 
That is a valuable tip the Government gives you. It shows you 
how you can get from your home dealer any quantity of clear, straight-grained, dur¬ 
able, easy-working lumber stronger than Oak, for a very moderate price. There is 
no other wood so perfectly adapted to so many uses. 
Send Today for These FREE Helps: 
SOUTHERN PINE ASSOCIATION, 626F Inter-State Bank Bldg., New Orleans, La. 
Send me free your new Silo Book, Plans for Farm Buildings, Tables of Lumber Tests, House Plans 
Name _ __Town___ 
R. F. D.. 
...State.. 
