RURAL NEW-YORKER 
951 
Garden and Farm Notes 
Rapidity of Corn Growth 
Is it possible that corn will f row (under 
the best growing: conditions) as nncli as 
cne foot in any single night? c. A. J. 
Virginia. 
All things seem to be possible in these 
lively days, but we never saw any such 
growth on corn. We should have to stand 
and watch it grow in order to be con¬ 
vinced. Most of such statements, like big 
egg yields, are bsised on “e.stimates” rath¬ 
er than facts. We hear of remarkable 
growth made by rubber plants in Mexico, 
but half an inch every hour for corn is 
a wonder. 
Harvesting Beans 
On page S.‘>0 you have a very good 
bean article, with a mis.sing link, as 
many other good articles have. Namely, 
you state when the vines are pulled they 
may le thrown into small heaps with 
small bottoms (page 881). ^ What do 
you m''an by small bottoms? Imagine 
handling '?() acres or more of beans. 
What aro you going to make these small 
bottoms of economically, and what the 
cost? I. n. N. 
New dfrsey. 
When field beans are being harvested, 
they are fre<iuently nlaced on small piles 
for a few days so that they will dry out 
before being jilaced in storage. If the 
small heaiis are siiread out low and flat, 
many of the vines will be next to the 
wet ground, and the flat surface would 
catch much of the rainfall if any should 
come at that time. On iTie other hand, 
if the bean-vines are placed in compact 
heaps, taller and with less surface ex¬ 
posed to the ground, much less of the 
soil moisture will be absorbed and in 
time of rain more water will drain off. 
Boards or canvas or any other material 
is never placed under the piles in the 
fields. 
The bean vines are pulled in two dis¬ 
tinct ways. When the grower has a 
large acreage he usually has what is 
known as a bean harvester. This con¬ 
sists of two flat blades, and one of each 
of these slides along under each of the 
two rows, pulling out the vines and lay¬ 
ing the two rows in one continual row. 
Then men with hay-forks gather up the 
vines into the small compact heaps. 
When the bean harvester is unavailable, 
the work must necessarily be done by 
hand. One of the most satisfactory ways 
of doing this is to have each man take 
two rows at a time. He jiulls with one 
hand while he gathers the roots of many 
plants into his other hand. When he 
has thus accumulated a good-sized bunch, 
it is carefully stood upside down so that 
the moist roots and the beans will get 
full exposure of the sun and air and 
quickly dry out. By taking two rows 
at a time, these small bunches of beans 
may be stood along between every four 
rows, so that there is a place provided 
for the hay wagon to drive through the 
field and have the vines thrown on to the 
wagon by men on each side with hay¬ 
forks. u- w. D. 
Watering Muskmelons 
I understand in growing muskmelons 
there is a certain time when the plant 
should not be watered. Can you tell me 
when that time is? w. \v. M. 
Newburgh, N. Y. 
When the strength of cantaloupe 
(rnu.skmelon) vines goes into the develop¬ 
ment of fruit, the vines are in a weak¬ 
ened condition. It is then that they are 
overcome with bliglit just before the crop 
is ready to pick. Also, when the vines 
are wet the leaf diseases develop and 
spread most rapidly. That is why peo¬ 
ple say the long spell of warm- wet 
weather and then the hot sun ruined their 
field. A good rain or a thorough irri¬ 
gation, when the fruit is forming, is very 
beneficial, but the vines must be kept 
dry as much as possible. 
When the crop has grown during quite 
dry weather a heavy rain near ripening 
time may cause the melons to increase in 
size so rapidly that they split open in 
the blossom end. This indicates vigor¬ 
ous vines and quality melons, and the 
splitting of the melon can be prevented 
by bending the stem or checking it with 
a pocket knife so that the full force of the 
sap flow from the vine is cheeked. Thus 
excellent melons are produced. Bordeaux 
mixture thoroughly and frequently ap¬ 
plied will materially cheek the develop¬ 
ment of the blight. .\n ounce of nitrate 
of soda hoed into the soil around each 
hill when the vines begin to develop fruit, 
is very beneficial in m-iintaining the vig¬ 
or and health of the vines. Frequent 
light applications of water to wet the 
foliage and surface soil should never be 
allowed but generous applications of 
water at long intervals are essential for 
best results. b. w. d. 
Burning Out Stumps 
I am told that if a tree is cut down 
before the sap goes from the limbs 
down to the roots, and an inch or j %- 
inch hole 18 inches deep, bored into the 
stur..p, this filled with either sulphur or 
saltpeter, and corked until Spring, thm 
filled with lamp oil and ignited, it w 11 
I'urn out to the ends of the roots. Is tfis 
the right way or is there a better way .' 
Columbiana, (). i.. n. u. 
Tliis thing started some ,‘>0 years ag\ 
.and has had more free advertising than 
any other farm advice we know of. It 
was at first credited to the “Scientific 
.•\merican.” We wrote that paper, and 
they repudiated the advice. It has now 
been before the public all these years, 
but if anyone has ever succeeded in de¬ 
stroying a .stump this way the evidence 
has also been destroyed. We believe it is 
a fake, but we are still open to any proof. 
Transfer to Notary 
I am a notary public. I took out my 
notary papers in TJlster Co., N. Y. Can 
T sign papers as a notary public in Erie 
(''^•mty, the county in which I now live, 
or can I have my commission trans¬ 
ferred from Ulster to Erie County? 
Elina, N. Y. j, w. n. 
No, you may not sign as notary pub¬ 
lic for Erie County now, not until you 
are appointed for Erie County, nor can 
you have your commis.sion transferred. 
If you wish to act as notary in Erie 
County you must make a new application 
and be appointed anew for that county. 
If you hall continued to live in Ulster 
but were temporarily in Erie you could 
then have filed your certificate in Erie 
County, and could have acted in that 
county also. 
New Jersey Seed Law 
The State Seed Analyst of Now Jer- 
•sey has prepared regu Nations and instruc¬ 
tions relating to the labelling, inspection 
and analysis of seeds in New .Jersey, as 
provided by the State Seed Law, effective 
November 1, lOlG. (Full text of law 
given in Circular 50, available on re¬ 
quest.) A copy of these should be in 
the hands of every person, firm or cor¬ 
poration selling seeds within New Jer¬ 
sey, or selling seeds into the State to be 
retailed by local dealers. These are pub¬ 
lished a.s Circular (50 of the New .Jersey 
Agricultural Experiment Station, and 
can be obtained by request L-om .Tohn P. 
Ilelyar, State Seed Analyst, New .Jer¬ 
sey Agricultural lOxperiment Station, 
New Brunswick, N. J. 
Woodchuck Hides ' 
^ • 
There have recently been many re¬ 
ports th.at skins of woodchuckr have 
jumped in value. It is oaul that +liis 
tough hide is used for making whip lash¬ 
es and thongs. Investigating these ru¬ 
mors seems to put them in the class with 
wild war stories. The following report 
seams to cover it: 
We receive occasionally, a couple of 
.skins of woodchuck but on account of 
the small quantity, W’e h<ave never been 
able to find a satisfactory outlet. In or¬ 
der to give an article a commercial value, 
substantial quantities must be available 
and this certainly does not apply to 
woodchuck hides. No consumer ever in¬ 
quired for any and we are always will¬ 
ing to dispose of them at about 5c per 
skin. As far as we know, they are inly 
used by doll makers, who, we presume 
use anything that is cheap, to cover 
small animals. It must be borne in 
nvind that woodchucks can only be caught 
from Spring until Fall, at a time when 
the fur is poor and therefore the skin 
is not desirable for fur purposes. We 
would not be surprised if with the 
present high prices of leather, it would 
be useful for leather purposes. This can 
only be tested when large quantities are 
available. it. p. pfaelzek. 
New York. 
The sitting room carpet was being 
taken up preparatory to house cleaning, 
and little U'orothy, aged three, was 
watching the operation with a great deal 
of childish curiosity and interest. Talc¬ 
ing up carpets was evidently something 
new to her infantile mind. Finally, aftn- 
some hard thinking on the subject, sh i 
looked up at her mother and said : 
“Mamma, is you goin’ to let the Iha r 
go bare-footed?”—(’redit Imst. 
Will Slo-Filling Time 
Find YOU READY? 
OILO-FILLING time will soon be here. Fill your 
own silo just when the corn is ready to cut. Get full 
feeding-value from your silage and be independent of the 
cutter crew. If you haven’t a tractor, your farm gasoline 
engine—3 h. p. and up—will do the work. Papec users are 
not worried about the labor shortage at silo-filling time. 
Here’s the way B. T. Cole, Stanton Station, 
N. J., managed last fall: “I filled my silo with 
a 3J4 h. p. engine with corn as heavy as ever 
grew out of the earth and had power to spare. 
We weighed one load, aSO lbs, and cut it in 
twelve minutes by the watch.” 
Frank S. Powell of Uwchland, Pa., writes: “I 
purchased one of your ‘N’-13 Ensilage Cut¬ 
ters this season, and I wish to say that it is a 
real corn cutter. I have had a silo for the 
last four or five years and have always paid 
a steam engine 
and cutter for ,_ _ „ 
fourteen hours’ i -7' 
work. This sea¬ 
son, with the 
Papec and an 8 
h. p. gas en¬ 
gine, I filled the 
same silo in 
15 hours. The 
Papec is a 
iwonder.” 
'im 
mmm 
Kehrli Bros., Beaverton, Ore¬ 
gon, operate a 10-inch Papec. 
They report: “We have used 
other cutters and after nlling 
three large silos with the 
. Papec, we must say it is by far 
the best machine we know of. It runs easy and is 
handy to get at for any change or adjustments.” 
Bob Phillips, Sulphur Springs, Texas, declares that his 
13-inch Papec is indeed a wonderful little machine. 
Have used it now two seasons and have been at no ex¬ 
pense whatever with the exception of grinding the 
knives.” 
Requires 1-S to 
1-3 less power 
than any other 
blower cutter. 
l am perfectly satisfied with the machine,” writes J. L. Elgin, Des Moines, Iowa, 
who operates a 16-inch Papec, “and I have never owned or used a piece of 
machinery which came so near doing what was expected of it as this cutter. I 
can heartily recommend the Papec to all prospective purchasers.” 
Fred L. Farmer, Mgr. Congdon Orchards, North Yakima, Washington, bought 
^ Papec cutter last August. He says: “We forced the machine to its 
lull capacity, on our 18 x 48 silo, but experienced no difficulty in elevating. We 
afterward equipped the cutter with an automatic hay feeding device and 
have used it several days each week since. It is the most efficient machine 
that we know of for cutting either ensilage or alfalfa.” 
IVirife for Catalog 
Some dealer near you now handles the Papec or will get one for you. 
1; J*”"**® “« that you’re taken care of. Anyway, 
tend for catalog today. 
PAPEC MACHINE CO. 
10 MAIN STREET 
SHORTSVILLE, N. Y. 
1 
