342 
Oic RURAL NEW-YORKER 
March 3. 1917. 
c 
ELPING Mother 
Nature," the book we 
are sending free to 
1,000,000 farmers, would have made 
this man prosperous by showing him’how to 
conserve soil fertility. Perhaps it will help 
you — send for a copy to our nearest ofSce and see 
how interesting it is. 
“Helping Mother Nature" isn’t a technical book, though 
thoroughly scientific. Shows that “weathered" manure is 
manure and that frequent, fine, even applications with the 
it is 
poor 
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Manure Spreader is the only way to save plant food in stable manure. 
The New Idea Spreader spreads wide—outside its own wheel tracks. 
Was the original wide spreader—first 
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Delivers evenly and uniformly 3, 6, 9,12, 
15 or 18 loads per acre. Low down, light 
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guaranteed for a year. Let your 
dealer give you a demonstration of 
the New Idea Spreader. 
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AMERICAN SHEET AND TIN PLATE COMPANY, Frick Building, Pittsburgh, Pa. 
It’s Up to You When Your 
Cows Get **Off Feed” 
It’s mighty important that you do something for your cows when 
they are in this condition. But it’s just as important to care for 
them when they are giving a good flow of milk. A cow should be 
fed to her full capacity if she is to be profitable. The strain of milk 
production is apt to overtax the digestive organs. The heavy milker 
needs a tonic to act on the secreting glands that produce the gastric 
juices that convert the food into milk. Dr. David Roberts’ COW 
TONIC does that very thing. It contains such roots, barks, herbs, 
as nature would supply if the cow roamed the meadows and woods. 
Dr. David Roberts’ 
cow TONIC 
is a great conditioner at all times, especially when cows are stabled or 
on dry feed. Cow Tonic is not a food, but a genuine tonic to act upon 
the digestive organs and enable cows to get lull benefit of their food. 
acts on organs of renroduction and gets animals in con- 
Dreedmg l onic dition for sure breeding. 
€*r\tAT r'lAnrttfkV* removes the afterbirth naturally. Heals and leaves breed- 
V-OW^ jjjg organs in normal condition. 
prevents scours and calf cholera. Keeps calves 
Uali L-uolera Kemeay in continuous growth. 
Calf Meal. Diolic , Badger Balm. Laxotonic and Stokvigor— valuable remedies, which 
should always be kept on band. 
Get Dr. Roberts’ Live Stock Prescrip¬ 
tions at your drug store—nearly 4000 
dealers in U. S. Look for and insist on 
g etting the package that bears Dr. 
oberts’ picture. If you do not already 
have the 184-page “Practical Home 
Veterinarian,’.’ treating all diseases of all 
live stock, send $1.00 and receive it by 
mail, postpaid. Address 
DR. DAVID ROBERTS 
VETERINARY CO. 
110 Wiaconsin Avenue, Waukesha, Wis. 
Double Cropping in Illinois 
I want to tell more especially the 
younger readers, how I have made a 
two-crop plan pay extra well in double 
profits. This can be done by anyone 
Who can do anything on the soil at all. 
I stirred my potato i»atch very deeply in 
early Spring, then harrowed and cross- 
harrowed it well to get it thoroughly 
pulverized and pack it somewhat; then 
laid off with the deep stirring plow, in 
rows three feet apart and six to eight 
inches deep. The potatoes are cut to 
one eye to a piece, and planted in the 
bottom of the furrow one every 12 
inches. Some cover their potatoes with 
the plow, but instead of using the plow, 
I take my wagon and good well-rotted 
manure and give the small i)ieces the 
first covering with manure. With a lit¬ 
tle practice one can cover quite a large 
patch in just a little while, going down 
the rows and scattering the i)ulverized 
manure two to three inches deci) over 
the potatoe.s. Here is where many plant¬ 
ers will differ with me. I want a .shal¬ 
low covering of manure instead of a 
deep furi’ow over them. When the po¬ 
tatoes are covered with the deep furrows, 
the chill of early Siiring and the damp¬ 
ness in the soil are apt to cause rot, 
and the sprouts are sure to he so long 
in coining through the ground that they 
will not be strong and vigorous as they 
would be with quicker germination and 
rapid, healthy growth. 
With the light covering of manure, my 
potatoes received the full benefit of the 
sunlight and warmth of the manure. The 
idauts are soon ready to burst through, 
and then I give them the second cover¬ 
ing by hitching onto the .spike-tooth har¬ 
row and giving the patch a thorough 
harrowing and cro.ss-harrowing. which 
not only exterminates all weeds that 
have been coming on while the potatoes 
are, but it further pulverizes and levels 
the ground, and at the same time gives 
the potatoes an additional covering of 
two inches, making about four inches 
now in all. 
Thus the potatoes are not long in com¬ 
ing throug'h this two-inch layer of fine 
soil, and they, of course, secure an early 
even start with the weeds, which is an 
important point. Giving the potatoes 
still another thorough harrowing and 
cross-harrowing just as they are coming 
up. then a deep cultivation, followed by 
a couple of shallow plowings, I keep the 
weeds well cleaned out and the soil mel¬ 
low, with a fine surface soil or dust 
mulch for the conservation of moisture, 
thus insuring a good yield of potatoes, 
and leaving the ground in good shape to 
plant a second crop after the last culti¬ 
vation. 
Now the second crop will please the 
boys and girls, and I surmise most of 
the grown-ups. too. It is pop corn, 
usually, sometimes sunflowers, hut the 
pop coi’ii seems to fit better. Between 
the potato rows three grains to the hill 
are planted, and the hills two feet apart. 
The soil having been kept jiractically 
free from weeds all that is required in 
tending the second crop is a little light 
hoeing, if the weeds get a start, but 
usually they never bother, as the po¬ 
tato vines have the soil so shaded that 
nothing bothers the corn. On good soil 
this corn will do well, and I cut it for 
fodder just as the ears begin to glaze. 
After the fodder is thoroughly cured, I 
husk the corn, taking the fodder to barn 
and putting it in the mow fixed especial¬ 
ly for fodder, and sprinkled with salt 
and a little hit of sugar as it is put in, 
and all kinds of cattle and horses eat 
it with a relish. 
’J'he pop corn is spread out to allow 
a thorough drying, and then it is stored 
away. About Chri.stmas time I bring it 
out and .sell. Often it brings $1.50 per 
bushel. I have got $‘2. and then again I 
have got as low as a dollar, hut u.sually 
about .$1.50. Resides, lots is always 
kept for the young folks and all, and 
some to give to the neighbors for a treat 
occa.sionally. Nearly all like good pop 
corn. 
About the sunflowers, if I have more 
patches that I wish to put in pop corn, I 
can make use of it to advantage with 
the sunflower, as they do pretty well 
that way, and they m.ake excellent chick¬ 
en feed. R. B. KLSIIING. 
.lohnson Co.. Ill. 
Concrete and Boulder Fountain 
A concrete and boulder fountain that 
anyone familiar with working cement can 
make is .shown on this page. It was bnilt 
to adorn an unsiglitly spot on the Barge 
Canal at Newark. New York. Water con¬ 
nection was first laid to the spot and the 
riser pipe conneeted. the ground being 
shallowed to allow for the slightly sunk 
basin. It was then only a matter of lay¬ 
ing the cement floor and circular wall 
which was bordered with field stoiu's of 
uniform size. A cone of field boulders 
firmly concreted surrounds the ri.ser pipe 
and near the base of the cone the outlet 
pipe is stationed. a. ii. p. 
Tractors for Orchard Work 
Our general practise is. after the trees 
in an orehard become too large for or¬ 
dinary annual cropping to advantage, to 
give thorough surface cultivation, with 
disk and smoothing harrow mainly, not 
using a turning plow at all, but com- 
meuciug with the disk as early as prac¬ 
ticable in the Spring after the ground is 
in fit condition and endeavoring to 
maintain clean ground and a dust mulch 
all through the Summer until about the 
last of July; then sow a cover crop and 
stop cultivation. This cultivation is in 
both directions and as close to the trees 
as practicable where they are trained 
with low heads. Necessarily much of it 
is done in hot weather and as there is 
but little circulation of air in a close- 
planted orchard, it makes heavy, ex¬ 
hausting work for the horses, and also 
is necessarily .slow. Often during the 
hottest weather, when it is impossible 
to crowd teams safely, it is desirable to 
get over the ground (luickly. and this is 
one reason why we bought a tractor two 
years ago. It is a small one. rated onl.v 
five to 12-horsepower, and of the throe- 
wheel type. It will pull two I4-incb 
turning plows in ordinary ground or 
common disks to the width of II feet. 
We hitch on an extension disk spread to 
this width, and couple on an ordinary 
(Continued on page 250) 
A Stone and Cement Fountain Beside the Barge Canal 
