812 
RURAL NEW-YORKER 
helps elect a certain superintendent gets 
a job on the road. When the town man 
works he appears at the superintendent’s 
house at eight A. M.; then they get in a 
dump wagon behind a team that moves 
at the speed of a snail, go across the 
town from four to eight miles, put in a 
little time and start back so as to get 
home by five P. M. I’ve seen them pass 
my farm, six or eight men riding in a 
dump wagon, at about four P. M. They 
wave their hands to my men who are 
working hard in the fields, then I hear 
some of my men say: “I’m going to get a 
job on the road. lie promised me one this 
year, but some one got ahead of me.” 
The town superintendent would get just 
as much help if they only paid $1.25 per 
day, as there isn’t much w’ork about it. 
I came driving through a town the other 
day with an auto. I overtook a team and 
dump wagon which I recognized as a road 
team. In about half a mile I came upon 
a group of road men waiting for this 
team, five sitting down and one leaning 
on a rake. Where is there a farmer who 
can afford five men to load one team? If 
the State, cities and towns would stop 
hiring the help away from the farm food¬ 
stuffs certainly would be more plentiful 
and cheaper. In fact I never had any 
trouble getting farm help until the State 
started building roads with farm labor. 
These things may regulate themselves, 
but some people may have to go hungry 
before they do. The farmer will certain¬ 
ly have to pay as much as the State for 
his help, and get more for his products. 
Tompkins Co., N. Y. F. r. aixen. 
Method of Growing Early Tomatoes 
.lust as our early tomatoes are start¬ 
ing to grow the planter is very much con¬ 
cerned about their growth. He asks him¬ 
self many questions, “•Shall I trim them 
and tie them to a single stake? Shall I 
make a little frame to support each plant, 
or shall I just let them go the way the 
commercial growers of the East do?” 
The illustration. Fig. .328. page 811, 
shows a common method as used in the 
vicinity of Toledo, O. The stakes from 
four adjacent hills are leaned together 
and securely tied. The tomato plants are 
trimmed to one or two main stems, and 
these are guided and tied along the poles. 
The growers claim that they get earlier, 
lai-ger and better tomatoes, free from 
sunscald and dirt. Therefore, the toma¬ 
toes never have to be wiped before they 
are sent to market. The time thus 
saved, they claim, makes up for the time 
required to stake and trim the vines. 
Some of the growers in the Northeast, 
especially the home gardeners, believe 
that it pays to place a small frame 
around each plant to support it above 
the ground. The commercial growers sel¬ 
dom provide supports of any kind; how¬ 
ever, if they have available hay, straw, 
lawn clippings or strawy manure they 
will mulch the soil quite heavily just 
before the tomato plants spread • out. 
Thus, moisture is conserved and the soil 
is kept cool, much stem-end rot is avoid¬ 
ed, and the crop is clean and more abund¬ 
ant. R. w. D. 
Hen Pasture; Destroying Poison Ivy 
1. I have two poultry yards and want 
to let chickens run in one while I plant 
some green stuff in the other for them to 
feed on ; then let them run in this yard 
while I plant first yard. Would you let 
me know what to plant and how to plant 
it? 2. I have some poison ivy w^hich 
cannot be pulled out by roots, on account 
of roots going under stone fence, and 
every time I have to do some work near 
it I get poisoned. Is there anything that 
could be sprayed that would kill the ivy? 
New York. F. D. 
1. We should use a combination of oats 
and Dwarf Essex rape. Plow or spade 
up one of those yards at once. Scatter 
lime over the ground and work it in. 
Then scatter oats thickly and add a small 
seeding of Dwarf Essex rape. You do 
not say how large your yards are, so that 
we cannot tell you just how much to use. 
Rake this seed in with a hand rake. The 
seeds will soon sprout, and when they are 
well up in the ground, say three inches 
high, turn the hens into that yard and 
work up the other one in the same way. 
Then when they are both going you may 
turn the hens back and forth for a supply 
of green food. 2. Put on a pair of leather 
gloves and pull as much of the poison ivy 
vine as is possible out of the ground and 
burn it promptly, or if you do not want 
to touch it cut off the vine with a scythe 
or knife and burn it. Then pour kero¬ 
sene oil or carbolic acid in water on the 
roots of the poison ivy. If the sprouts 
start up again, give it another dose in the 
same way and scatter salt over the place. 
By working on these roots thoroughly 
with the kero.sene or carbolic acid you 
will finally clean them out. 
Culture of Okra 
Will you give me a little information 
as to the growing of okra? I wish to 
know hojv much seed i)er acre, distance 
of rows apart, and of plants in the row, 
amount and kind of fertilizer, and kind 
of package it should be shipped in. 
Felton, Del. ii. a. k. 
Okra or gumbo is a warm season crop 
grown quite generally in the South, 
where it is a favorite dish, cooked either 
alone or with tomatoes. It is usually 
served in the North with soups. The 
immature seed pods are the edible por¬ 
tions. 
This crop is cultivated very much as 
corn or beans are grown. It is sown in 
rows three feet apart, and after it gets 
started the plants are thinned so that 
thej stand about a foot apart on the av¬ 
erage. Dwarf Prolific, Perkins Long Pod 
and White Velvet are the leading varie¬ 
ties. It requires from three to four 
pounds of seed to plant an acre. The crop 
is marketed in hampers and sometimes in 
the four-quart tills and Georgia carriers. 
The greatest proposition is to pick the 
crop as often as it should be for the sake 
of quality in the product and the vitality 
of the bush. R. w. debaun. 
Shade Trees Around Spring 
Between my house and a young pear 
orchard is a group of about 12 big locust 
trees that shut off my view of the or¬ 
chard. In this bunch of locust trees is 
a spring that we use to water the stock. 
If I cut down the locust trees will it 
hurt the flow of water? S. T. B. 
Johnstown, Pa. 
If the fountain-head of the sprang has 
its source some distance away from the 
trees, is deep under ground, and never 
failing, it is not likely the removal of 
the trees will diminish the w'ater supply 
to any appreciable extent. But when 
the spring is once deprived of the cool air 
of the shade of the trees, it will never 
again be as cool and refreshing in the hot 
days of Summer, as it is with its present 
surroundings. Animals enjoy a cool, 
refreshing drink, I believe, fully as much 
as the human, and unless there is some 
extraordinary reason for cutting the trees 
down, it should not be done. K. 
Handy Barrel Rack 
Over a year ago, (Jan. 8, 191G) was 
published a picture of a rack for hauling 
barreled apples said to be in use in 
Canada. The same type has been in use 
here, but has now almost gone. The 
style shown in the picture is so mur’' 
better in many ways that it is adopted 
by most growers. 
The Canadian rack is very long for the 
load it must carry. It is very hard for 
one man to load barrels on it without 
help. It carries the barrels on their 
sides. From the shape of a barrel and 
the way in which it is filled it is much 
easier to bruise the apples through the 
staves than through the heads. Most 
storage men hold that a barrel should be 
kept on end as much as possible. In the 
storehouses the barrels are usually laid 
down because it is easier to handle them 
that way; but in the better storages they 
try to have the barrels kept on end when 
they are being moved. 
The rack shown will carry twenty bar¬ 
rel as it is loaded- It is on springs so 
there is little chance for the apples to 
be bruised. The barrels are kept on end 
and it is not very hard for a man to load 
his apples alone if no help is handy. 
The bottom of the rack is made of three 
planks cleated together to form a bed 
about as wide and a little longer than an 
ordinary wagon box. The side rails are 
2x4 inches and supported about 18 inch¬ 
es above the bottom of the rack by means 
of four iron standards at each side. 
Some of our racks have the rails bolted 
to the standards while others have a 
piece welded on near the top to form a 
stirrup in which the rail rests. The 
latter method is better if crates are to be 
hauled, as it makes it a little easier to 
place the second tier. A. c. w. 
Wayne Co., N. Y. 
Onions from Seed or Sets 
Can onions for Winter u.se be raised 
from onion sets? I understand that 
onions for Winter use must come from 
seed, and little onions for early use from 
onion sets. j. b. i.. 
Cornwall-on-Hudson, N. Y. 
Onions grown from onion sets in the 
vicinity of New York City usually get 
rotten in the heart before Winter. Some¬ 
times they will send up a top growth 
even when they are spread out in shal¬ 
low trays under shelter where they have 
free access to air. Onions from sets are 
ready for the mai-ket by July 1. They 
are intended primarily for the Summer 
trade only, because they, are miserable 
keepers and because the large onion 
grown from seeds can be produced much 
cheaper. If they are properly gathered 
and stored, this crop, direct from seed, 
should keep in perfect condition until the 
follownig Spring. B. w. D. 
Pollinating Flowers 
I would like to know how to pollenize 
flowers or vegetables; for instance, cu¬ 
cumbers in a greenhouse. ii. p. m. 
Woodcliff Lake, N. J. 
A very common way of pollinating 
flowers is to transfer the pollen from the 
male or staminate blossoms to the female 
or pistillate blossom by hand, i. e., using 
a camel’s-hair brush. However, this 
method is too laborious and expensive, 
except for special occasions. Commer¬ 
cial growers of cucumbers in a hothouse 
place a hive of honey-bees right in the 
hothouse. As the bees gather nectar 
from the blossoms, cross-pollination is 
effected. 
Get the Farm Loads Low Down 
Cleopatra, it is said, sought easy ways 
to die. Most of us seek easy ways to 
live. We find them occasionally, some¬ 
times as the result of thought and in¬ 
vestigation, sometimes as the result of 
accidents or blunders. To aim at one 
mark, miss it and hit another is not un¬ 
common. Sometimes the shot scatter and 
we get both. Here is an example. 
June 23, li>17. 
The common container here and prob¬ 
ably everywhere among farmers, on 
wheels or .sled, for handling grain, short 
wood, earth, sawdust or dressing, is a 
long box about four feet wide, with sides 
two to three feet high over the sides of 
which the material must be shoveled or 
pitched or thrown, and again lifted in 
unloading. Hence, the use, when pos¬ 
sible, of the dump-cart, which delivers its 
load in a heap in one quick slide, very 
good for many farm uses. 
Wishing to keep a two-hor.se sled fair¬ 
ly clean in handling dressing, I made a 
platform in two sections by nailing six- 
foOt boards upon 2x4 joists, making a re¬ 
movable floor about 14 feet long. This 
lies on sled at about two feet from the 
ground. It is so low that it. is easy to 
throw manure upon it for spreading on 
the snow, and equally so for getting it 
off. It requii’es no high lifting to lo.ad, 
and as one stands beside it, it is just 
the right height to slide the material off 
and spread it, as one stands beside the 
.sled. If I had known it sooner, I might 
have had the same thing on low wheels, 
for many of the jobs about the farm. 
The platform is so wide that a great load 
can be built upon it, without lifting high. 
Then the sections of platform, not be¬ 
ing fastened down, can be readily re¬ 
moved, and stowed on edge or used as a 
temporary roof wherever required. 
Maine. g. s. paixe. 
Likes the Locust Tree 
Recently in several issues of The R. 
N.-Y. there appeared articles on the erad¬ 
ication of locust sprouts. I w’ould like to 
sound a note of warning on the destruc¬ 
tion of the much-despised locust tree. 
With due respect to the inquirer and also 
the persons giving the advice of eradica¬ 
tion I offer my apology. As a lover of 
nature (and that includes trees) while 
living in a locality where the locust tree 
abounds in all its luxury and thrift, I 
am often pained to see the trees ruth¬ 
lessly and carelessly hewn down and after 
they are disposed of, the sprouts which 
spring numei’ously from the stump are 
cut, and a second growth sent forth, 
and here is -where the trouble comes. 
They spring up from the roots when this 
second growth comes, and spread as far 
as the roots reach, and they are far- 
reaching. I realize that some must be 
done away with, for they will occupy 
valuable space needed for other purposes, 
hence the inquiries for eradication. But 
are we farmers really appreciating the 
value of the many uses of the locust tree? 
We know the value as fence posts for 
durability, and if sawed to planks locust 
makes good lasting hotbed and cold 
frames, and many other uses, besides 
making the best stove wood. We cannot 
depend on chestnut for our post mate- 
ial, as the blight is playing havoc and de¬ 
struction on every side, hence we have to 
fall back on the despised locust as our 
future hope for fence post materials. 
8 ome one may suggest cement for posts, 
but at the rate cement is soaring in price 
it would become prohibitive, therefore 
locust is the only alternative in this 
part of the country. 
I would urge all farmers to give some 
attention to training and pruning locust 
sprouts for future use as fence posts, 
and when I say pruning I do not mean 
ax pruning, which makes a bad job, and 
leaves stubs where the limbs were cut 
that cannot heal over properly; use a 
saw and cut close to the trunk so the 
wound can heal and when sawing a large 
limb don’t forget to saw in on the under 
side to avoid splitting into the trunk. It 
is surprising how fast the sprouts grow 
if properly cared for, and in how short a 
time they are suitable for fence post tim¬ 
ber, and the beauty is they are always 
there, and can be depended to send up a 
new crop of sprouts every time a tree is 
cut. Then locust belongs to the legume 
family, thus aiding in the enrichment of 
the soil peculiar to that family of plants, 
and whoever knew of the soil being poor 
where a locust tree once stood? 
In conclusion, who has not admired 
the beauty of the locust when in full 
bloom, and the fragrance of the blossoms 
as they perfume the air in the immedi¬ 
ate vicinity, the bees busily engag>;d ‘n 
gathering the golden nectar wmch it 
yields so abundantly? Therefore I ask 
you to consider the locust tree. 
EMANUEL S. HACKER. 
Lancaster Co., Pa. 
An Improved Rack for Hauling Barreled Fruit 
