832 
lahe RURAl. NEW-YORKER 
General Farm Topics 
The Peachblow Potato 
Is there seed for sale of the Peachblow 
potato? I would like to get some of the 
seed as I have heard a great deal from 
old people in this vicinity about the 
I'eachblow years ago. I have never been 
able to secure the seed. L. s. li. 
Jlexico, N. Y. 
This is one of the old-fashioned varie¬ 
ties of potatoes which every old potato 
grower recalls with happy recollections. 
Many will be intere.sted to know that a 
bulletin put out by the Iowa State Col¬ 
lege of Agriculture states that this once 
favorite late variety was taken to the Car- 
bondale district of Colorado after the 
Civil War and has been preserved in full 
vigor. A red or pink sport from the orig¬ 
inal pink-eyed sort now leads, but both 
are grown, and in quantities up to a 
thousand cars or more per year. The 
local name McClure is sometimes ai)plied 
to it. 
Those who are anxious to get more 
definite information or possibly to get a 
little of the seed may write to the Colo¬ 
rado Agricultural Experiment Station, 
Fort Collins, Colorado. 
Bees Near Public Highway 
What distance from the center of a 
public highway must bees be kept, or, in 
other words, how near the highway may 
bees be kept and owner not be liable 
should they cause any annoyance or 
trouble to teams passisg by? Would 
owner of bees be liable should damage 
re.sult by bees stinging a horse or team 
driven into the private di-iveway of the 
owner of the bees, bees being near pri¬ 
vate driveway and in plain sight from 
public highway? ,s. 
New York, 
So far as is known, there is no law in 
any State that regulates the distance at 
which bees may be kept from the com¬ 
mon highway. As a matter of in-ecau- 
tion I have been advising everyone who 
keeps bees, if he has a largo number, to 
place them 400 or 500 feet back from 
the street or common road, e.specially if 
there are no buildings, shrubbery, nor 
trees intervening. It is desirable to have 
bees back of a screen of trees or build¬ 
ings, so they will have to fly to a height 
of .SO or 40 feet before they cross the 
public highway or street. When so 
screened, there never need be any trouble 
from pedestrians or teams being stung; 
and even if they were stung by an occa¬ 
sional bee it is doubtful whether the 
coui-ts would hold that the owner of the 
bees was negligent, and therefore liable 
to damages. Under the rule of common 
law a person is supposed to exercise due 
precaution. That is all. 
It is my opinion that the owner of the 
bees mentioned in the second question 
would not be liable; unless he placed 
bees near a hitching-post where a team 
was tied ; and even then the courts would 
probably hold that the owner of the team 
would come under the rule of contribu¬ 
tory negligence. In other words, he him¬ 
self should exercise due pi-ecaution, and 
if he hitched his team near where bees 
were flying, it is a question whether the 
owner of the bees would be held liable, 
and if so, the damage would be only nom¬ 
inal. In the case cited, if the bees were 
in plain sight, and could be easily seen 
by the owner of the team, he having a 
general knowledge that bees can and do 
sting, it is very doubtful if the owner of 
the team could collect damages. 
E. R. ROOT. 
Quack Grass and Mulching 
Every few weeks some one writes for 
The E. N.-Y., who hasn’t tried but prog¬ 
nosticates, imagines and guesses how to 
remove quick, wire, quack or scutch grass. 
The removal of any weed or Canada 
thistle, can be done in three months if 
these directions are followed : 
I had a four-acre lot matted with this 
grass and .some Canada thistle. A spade 
would bounce back about as if it had hit 
rubber. Early in the Spring I had this 
piece disked over .six times, cutting the 
sod into small hunks. Afterward every 
few days I went over with an Acme har¬ 
row, keeping the roots of grass and thistle 
moved often enough so that they had no 
chance to grow. In three months’ time 
this lot was like garden soil. This gives 
a field fine preparation for cow peas or 
Soy beans, which can be taken off in 
time for Crimson clover. Of course, the 
Acme must be kept at work; no .slovenly 
farmer should have scutch grass and 
thistle, for it will always be with him. 
I notice also deprecatory remarks 
about sod culture for orchard.s. This 
kind of culture needs attention—not 
mowing twice or thrice a year, but every 
10 days'. That stunts the grass so that 
the roots are short and the thin mat that 
the lawn-like grass makes is about as 
good as cultivation. I have had the finest 
pears, apples and grapes on a laicn where 
every week a lawn-mower was used, 
almo.st record-breaking Catawba bunches. 
One year I manured or top-dressed a 
Naomi vine in sod closely shorn, and I 
never had finer fruit—dozens of bunches 
nine inches long. A Duchess vine simi¬ 
larly treated was so boautifuly laden that 
I tried to get it photographed. It is just 
as easy to ride a lawn-mower as a culti- 
ELBERT WAKEMAX. 
Maryland. 
Buckwheat and Soy Beans for Manuring 
On my farm in Morris Countv. N. .1, 
I have about 12 acres of land that has 
had no attention for over 10 years, and 
is destitute of humus. I was j)lanning to 
ploAv it in .Tune and sow it (perhap.s not 
until .Tuly) for a soil crop to be plowed 
m September. I thought of sowing either 
a mixture (one bushel buckwheat, three 
pounds clover, one pound Cow-horn tur¬ 
nips) per acre or Cow peas, the latter 
having been suggested. Which would be 
the better? Would it be too late in the 
sea.son for Cow peas? Or is there some¬ 
thing better than either of the above? 
After plowing in September I am plan- 
ning to sow rye to be plowed under next 
-Spring. F. E. N. 
Montclair, N. J, 
Under the plan proposed clover would 
hardly pay, since it would not make large 
growth before plowing under in Septem¬ 
ber for the rye. Buckwheat is a good 
crop for such use, and we should seed 
with it either cow peas or Soy beans. We 
think that on the whole Soy beans would 
give best satisfaction, though it would de¬ 
pend somewhat upon the variety of cow 
peas used. Roy beans and buckwheat 
have been used in parts of the South to 
good advantage. We should u.se six pecks 
of Soy beans to the acre—broadca.st, and 
well harrowed in. A pound of turnip seed 
put in with this mixture will do no harm 
and probably iiay a profit. It would pay 
to use lime at this seeding or when the 
crop is turned under to seed the rye. 
Eradicating Morning-glory’ 
Morning-glory is working into my po¬ 
tato field. What would you advise me 
to do? Thi'eo years ago I had i)otatoes in 
the same field, and that time I s.alted 
weeds well; they died and I had no 
trouble that year but now they are worse 
than ever. e. j. g. 
Coplay, Pa. 
I know of no way to keep the morning- 
glories down but ab.solute clean cultiva¬ 
tion. If one morning-glory plant is al¬ 
lowed to seed it will furnish a large area 
with seed, and the seed will live years in 
the soil and germinate as soon as brought 
up into the influence of heat and oxygen. 
Salt, of course, will kill almost any plant, 
but the plants that make up the flora of 
the seashore. But enough salt to kill the 
moraing-glories might also be enough to 
kill the potatoes, I have a garden which 
I bought seven years ago, when it was 
full of every weed known in this part of 
the country. I have gotten rid of some 
of the wor.st ones, but we have long ago 
been condemned to get our living by the 
sweat of our brows, and though weeds 
will grow, I have a garden about as clean 
of them as any, and do it by simply not 
allowing weeds to grow. Clean cultiva¬ 
tion and not allowing annual weeds to 
made seed, is about the only way to keep 
the weeds down, w. F. massey. 
THE MAILBAG 
Rutabagas in Corn 
.1. S. Woodward, in his excellent arti¬ 
cle on “A Crop of Yellow Turnips,” says 
in reply to one of our friends in Penn¬ 
sylvania in regard to growing rutabagas 
in corn : “This crop has no place in a 
cornfield.” As I have grown tons of them 
in the corn, I wil tell how I do it. When 
drilling the corn mix the seed in the 
phosphate (be careful or you will get in 
too much). The only trouble is, if you 
cut the corn Avith a harvester it Avill cut 
the tops off the turnips. If cut by hand 
they Avill continue to grow till frost. 
Crawford Co., Pa. joiix n. rxjpert. 
Nux Vomica and Hawks 
In regard to the ai’ticle on “Nux "Yom- 
and Chicken Hawks,” page 740, I wish to 
say that the drug is a good thing. Who 
cares Avhether or not the haAvk is scien¬ 
tifically killed, so that he comes back 
after no more chickens? The important 
point is that after the loss of five or six 
young chickens to as many different 
haAvks, the chicks are comparatively safe 
for the season. And very good circum¬ 
stantial evidence is that doubting farm¬ 
ers of the neighborhood explain by saying 
that haAvks “are not bad this year.” My 
chickens Avere a month to six weeks the 
earliest around here. The dose as I used 
it was to be given tAvo to three times a 
Aveek—one teaspoonful to 25 chickens 
three days old, as any younger it .seemed 
to cause fits. Of course, it can be re- 
l)eated later in the season, any time it 
seems advisabe. I used it steadily for 
three Aveeks or so and occasionally after- 
Avard. It seems that because the haAvks 
have no ci'ops they are more easily pois¬ 
oned than chickens. .Inst try this, eA’ers^ 
body.and report to The R. N.-Y. 
West Virginia, m, 6 . A. 
R. N.-Y.—As we have stated the scien¬ 
tific men must be shown, Avhile these 
farmers say they have been shoAvn. It 
doesn’t make much difference Avhat kills 
the haAvk so long as he dies. 
Weed-killer for Roadway 
Will you gi . i recipe for a good ‘Sveed 
killer,” stating the proportions of the in¬ 
gredients to be used? d. s. m. 
New York. 
Salt and arsenic are tvA-o familiar weed¬ 
killers; both may be used on Avalks or 
tennis courts, but arsenic must be han¬ 
dled cautiously, because of its dangerous 
properties. Hot brine, one pound salt to 
one gallon of Avater, is very useful on 
roadways. Caustic soda in strong solu¬ 
tion is also useful on such surfaces. Roth 
this and the salt are most efiicacious 
Avhen applied in hot dry weather. The 
arsenical herbicides are, hoAvevei', the 
most effective weed killers known to use 
on roadAvays and other plain surfaces. 
The simplest material to employ is ar- 
senite of soda, which is merely dissolved 
in Avater; one pound ai'senite of sod.a to 
three to nine gallons Av.ater. The arsen- 
ite endures for a long time, and does not 
readily leach away; thus its effects are 
more permanent than the brine. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK 
DOMESTIC.—Four dead and 1.3 se¬ 
verely injured is the toll of an explosion 
and fire that destroyed one of the factories 
of the American Sugar Refining Company 
in Bi'ooklyn, .lune 13. The loss was esti¬ 
mated by officials of the company at 
about $1,000,000. This includes about 
70.000 bags of raw sugai-. The fire Avas 
believed to be due to defective insulation. 
During a heavy storm .lune 14 light¬ 
ning struck one of the mijls of the Her¬ 
cules PoAvder Company at Schaghticoke, 
N. Y., and the building Avas bloAvn to bits. 
Thei-e Avere no casualties owing to the 
fact that employees had left the place a 
short time before. 
June 13 three anti-conscriptionist agi¬ 
tators in NeAV York City received prison 
sentences. In the United States District 
Court in Manhattan Judge Mayer im- 
■posed maximum sentences upon Louis 
Kramer, professed anarchist and member 
of Emma Goldman’s No Conscription 
League, Avho was convicted both of con¬ 
spiracy against the conscrii)tion laAV and 
of personal refusal to register. The sen¬ 
tence Avas tAA'O yeai's’ imprisonment and 
$10,000 fine on the first charge; one year 
in a penitentiary on the second, and the 
judge directed that at the expiration of 
both terms and of such additional time an 
may be imposed for non-payment of tin 
fine tbe prisoner shall be deported to Rus¬ 
sia. He sentenced Kramer’s friend, Mor¬ 
ris Becker, another anarchist, to one year 
and eight months in Atlanta peniten¬ 
tiary. At the same time .Judge Chatfield, 
in Brooklyn, sentenced Herman Levine, 
a public school teacher and “conscientious 
objector,” to 11 mouths and 29 days for 
refusing to register. 
Emma Goldman and Alexander Berk- 
man AAmre arrested .Tune 15 in NeAV York, 
charged with conspiracy against the Gov¬ 
ernment in inducing young men to break 
tbe selective conscription Irav by not reg¬ 
istering. If convicted they can be im¬ 
prisoned for two years and fined $10,000 
apiece, and can also be deported for 
preaching anarchy, both being aliens. 
Federal investigation of alleged abduc¬ 
tion plots supposedly directed in Spring- 
field, Mo., by agents of the German Goa'- 
ernment, Avas resumed .Tune 15 Avith the 
arrival from Kansas City of Arthur Bag- 
ley and Oscar Schmidt, special investi¬ 
gators of the Department of .Tustice. 
Both admitted they had obtained state¬ 
ments from Claude J. Piersol, Avho was 
placed in jail at Kansas City folloAving 
.Tune 30, 1917. 
unsuccsesful attempts by “vigilantes” to 
wring a confession fom him in connec¬ 
tion Avith I’le disappearance and death of 
IJoyd Keet. 14-months-old son of a 
Springfield banker. 
Three hundred intended immigrants 
from the Cape Verde Islands, who have 
been detained at Boston for sevei'al weeks 
because of their failure to pass the liter¬ 
acy test, Avere ordered deported by officials 
at Washington June 19. The men Avere 
offered an opportunity to enter the coun¬ 
try and AA'ork on farms for six months, 
but refused, saying the pay AA-as smaller 
and the Avork_ harder than they had ex¬ 
pected to get in munitions factories. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The Society 
of American Florists and Ornamental 
Horticulturists has decided to eliminate 
all social functions and entertainments 
from its annual convention, to be held in 
NeAV York City, in August. In place of 
proposed expenditures for the entertain¬ 
ment of visitors, the NeAV York Flori.sts’ 
Club has contributed $1,000 to the Amer¬ 
ican Red Cross, and purchased Liberty 
Loan bonds amounting to $5,000. 
The florists’ trade here is noAv receiv¬ 
ing large quantities of dried maiden-hair 
ferns from Australia. Formerly millions 
of dried fern fronds were shipped from 
Australia to Germany and afrer treat¬ 
ment and preparation were shipped to 
this country. Since goods have ceased 
coming from Germany progressive Amer¬ 
ican firms are preparing the fronds them¬ 
selves and find a large demand for them. 
WASHINGTON.—A prohibitory tax 
on foodstuffs used in making beverages 
tentatively agreed to by the Senate Fi¬ 
nance Committee AA-as still further in- 
crea.sed June 14, and then Avas fonnally 
Avritten into the Avar tax bill. The ncAV 
rate is .$60 a hundred pounds instead of 
.$20 a bushel, and representatives of the 
distillers declare it unquestionably AA’ould 
be effectfre in forcing suspension of the 
distilling industry. The section as ap¬ 
proved also prohibits importation of dis¬ 
tillers’ beverages. The manufactui'ers’ 
tax of 5 per cent, on athletic goo<l.s, cam¬ 
eras, patent medicines, perfumeries and 
cosmetics Avas reduced to 2 per cent..-de¬ 
creasing the revenue by abovit .$9,0(X).000. 
A substitute tax on scalpers’ sales of 
tickets Avas adopted making the rate from 
5 to 50 per cent., instead of 50 per cent, 
flat. The House rates of .$2.20 a gallon 
on distilled .spirits and .$2.75 on malt 
liquors were retained, although Avith the 
prohibitory tax upon neAV manufacture of 
distilled spirits the .$2.20 rate Avould ap¬ 
ply most exclusively to spirits already 
manufactured and Avithdrawn from 
bonded Avarehouses. 
The Administration espionage bill Avas 
signed by the President .Tune 15. 
Regulations under Avhich all officers 
and men of American merchant ships 
plying betAveen ports of the L’nited States 
and the Avar zone must be insured by 
their owners for from $1,500 to $5,000 
against death, maiming or capture Avere 
issued June 19 by Secretary McAdoo. 
They become effective as to vessels leav¬ 
ing the United States .Tune 26. and as to 
those sailing from foreign ports .Inly 10. 
The secretary announced the appoint¬ 
ment of John J. CroAvley. a life and acci¬ 
dent insurance expert of Hartford, Conn., 
to haA-e charge of a new seamen’s insur¬ 
ance division of the war ri.sk insurance 
bureau, as assistant to Director De 
Lancy. 
Widespread attempts on the part of 
munition makers to evade the payment 
of profits taxes imposed by Congress last 
September have been reported by internal 
revenue agents, who have been Avorking 
quietly for the last tAV-o mouths checking 
up the manufacturers’ returns. The ex¬ 
tent of the attempted evasion thus Lir 
brought to the attention of the Treasury 
totals more than $10,000,000, or approx¬ 
imately 40 per cent, of the returns volun¬ 
tarily made. Indications are that the 
figure Avill go as high as $12,000,000 or 
$13,000,000. Scores of the manufactur¬ 
ers of munitions are said to have at¬ 
tempted to defeat the full operation of the 
laAV by making only partial returns of 
their profits. Lender the law munitions 
makers are required to report to the 
Commissioner of Internal Revenue their 
profits each year and to pay the Govern¬ 
ment a tax of 1214 per cent. ’VTrtually 
all of the 600 to 700 manufacturers made 
their return.s, apparently in confoi-mance 
Avith the laAV, showing profits which 
netted the Government approximately 
$20,500,000 in taxes. 
Coming Live Stock Sales 
August 7-8.—Purebred Live Stock 
Sales Co., Brattleboro, Vt., Holsteins. 
Oct. 2-3.—Purebred Live Stock Sales 
Co., Brattleboro, Vt., Holsteins. 
Coming Farmers’ Meetings 
American Association of Nurserymen, 
forty-second annual meeting, Philadel¬ 
phia, Pa., .Tune 27-29. 
Society of American Florists and Orna¬ 
mental Horticulturists, Ncav York City, 
August 21-23. 
Solebury Farmers’ Exhibit, Solebui'y 
Deer Park, Solebury. Pa., Sept. 7-8. 
Ncav York State Fair, Syracuse, N. Y., 
September 10-15. 
Agricultui'al Society of Queens-Nassau 
Counties, seventy-sixth annual exhibition, 
Mineola, N. "Y., Sept. 25-29. 
Eastern States Exposition, Springfield, 
Mass., Oct. 12-20. 
