256c RURAL NEW-YORKER 
963 
The Home Garden 
Kiln-drying Onions 
Is there any practical way of kiln- 
drying onions in small quantities, 10 or 
15 bushels, on the farm? Would a tight 
box with a hot water circulating coil 
and a cold water condensing coil do the 
business? At what temperature and how 
long a time would they have to be kept 
in the kiln? C. E. B. 
North East, Pa. 
The kiln-drying of onions is not prac¬ 
ticed by any growers, dealers nor con¬ 
sumers, that we have been able to lo¬ 
cate. If onions are to be stored for later 
use they must have conditions which 
meet their peculiar needs. In the first 
place they should be pulled before more 
than half the tops are dried up. Unless 
this is done promptly after growth has 
ceased, a new root system will develop, 
and the heart of the bulb will start. This 
would cause the onions to become soft 
in storage and to send up a new growth. 
A few hours after the onions have been 
pulled and have thoroughly dried they 
should be gathered up and stored in shal¬ 
low trays, or spread out on a dry floor 
about five inches thick db else stacked 
up in small ventilated containers or in 
any way so that air will be accessible 
at all times, and so that the onions will 
be kept perfectly dry and cool. Under 
these conditions the crop grown from 
seed and gathered in September should 
keep all Winter. However, that crop 
which matures in early July grown from 
sets does not keep well and must be used 
during the Summer. 
The large onions may be completely 
dried up and permanently stored away 
by the following method: Select well-ma¬ 
tured onions and remove the outside pa¬ 
pery covering. Cut off tops and roots. 
Slice into one-eighth inch pieces and dry 
quickly. To avoid any unpleasantness, 
peel and slice while holding under wa¬ 
ter. Dip in boiling water for five min¬ 
utes. Remove surface moisture and 
spread them out thinly on wire screens 
through which a current of air may 
pass, for from 2^ to three hours be¬ 
ginning at a temperature of 110 deg. F., 
and rising gradually to 140 deg. F. 
When thoroughly dried, pack the pro¬ 
duct in a light-proof container to avoid 
discoloration, and store in a cool dry 
place. While this method of drying onions 
is perfectly sure, it is seldom used for 
this vegetable unless the product is to 
be transported considerable distance 
where weight and bulk are to be avoided. 
tinually cutting out the long runners it 
sends along the ground, as well as climb¬ 
ing over everything above. I have cut 
runners this Summer that had crept un¬ 
noticed along the ground for 30 feet, and 
were rooting at every joint. Let alone, 
I believe that one plant will get entire 
possession of a 10-acre field in a few 
years if set in the middle of the field. 
It would be valuable as a forage plant, 
but if anyone ever tried to get rid of 
it kudzu would laugh at his efforts and 
grow all the stronger. I have tried to 
grub out plants, but the roots seem to 
go down and clinch, and I never suc¬ 
ceeded in getting one up whole. 
W. F. MASSEY. 
“ Yellows” in Cabbage 
There is something the matter with my 
cabbage. The lower leaves begin to die, 
wilt, goes on up till all wilt and drop off, 
leaving the stem. This is the case with 
the plants as well as the heads of cab¬ 
bage. Can you tell me what to do? They 
are this way all over the patch here and 
there. F. F. c. 
Front Royal, Va. 
Tour cabbage plants are infected with 
the well-known disease called “yellows.” 
The plants usually show the characteris¬ 
tic symptoms in from two to four weeks 
after they are set in the field. The outer 
and lower leaves are the first to show the 
signs of the disease. A distinguishing 
characteristic of the disease is that 
sometimes only one ride of a leaf may dry 
up while the other half will remain nor¬ 
mal. The lowest leaves are always the 
first to drop off, and this is followed by 
the next above, until only a bare stock is 
left supporting a small imperfect head or 
none at all, dependent upon the age of 
the plant when it becomes diseased. A 
browning of the woody part of the stem 
shown when it is cut ci'osswise with a 
knife is another characteristic of the 
‘yellows.” After the soil once becomes 
infected cabbage grown upon that ground 
is very apt to go down with the disease. 
To avoid infection the grower should dis¬ 
infect his seed before planting it, soaking 
it for 15 minutes in a solution of formal¬ 
dehyde (40 per cent.) one ounce, and 
water two gallons. Then wash the seed 
in pure water and spread it out to dry at 
once. Infected cabbage fed to stock or 
thrown upon a manure heap would infect 
those fields where the manure is applied. 
E. w. D. 
**One or more tractors on every farm will help toward in. 
tensive farming, and will help to solve the labor problem. " 
—J. Ogden Armour in the Saturday Evening Poet. 
The country demands that your farm—every farm in the land 
—produce a maximum yield. 
This is possible, even in the face of the labor shortage that 
confronts you. The genius of RoUin H. White has made it so— 
made it practical for you to motorize your farm. For he has 
built the one tractor that can be operated profitably on almost 
every farm. 
That tractor is the Cleveland. It is the first practical smaO 
unit machine. It is the machine for which you have been waiting. 
The Cleveland crawls on its own tracks, so it will not stick, 
mire or pack the soil. 
Possessing 600 square inches of traction surface, it will go 
anywhere—over rough and smooth, around hill and over dale, 
through sand and over wet land. And work—one Cleveland 
does more actual work in a day than three three-horse teams 
and three men. 
In proof: a Cleveland will pull! two fourteen-inch plows and 
with them turn up eight to ten acres a day of the finest, straightest 
funow you ever saw. And with minimum fuel expense. 
B. W. D. 
Notes from a Maryland Garden 
A Rainy Month. —Just now it is 
bard to make any suggestions about the 
garden. We have not been able to do 
anything in it, and hardly to get into 
it for weeks, for it has rained more or 
less every day since the first of July, 
and this is written on the twenty-fourth, 
and it rains as I write. Everything has 
made an abnormal growth, especially the 
weeds and grass. Eggplants are regular 
little trees, sugar corn which usually 
makes a dwarfish growth, has developed 
to the size of ordinary field corn, and 
I am glad to say that the ears have 
developed on size in a similar way. 
Chard looks like giant I’hubarb, and the 
cucumber vines look more like pumpkin 
plants, judging from the size of the 
leaves. Cantaloupes are not setting fruit 
freely; the rains have probably damaged 
the pollen-making blooms. The same is 
true of the cucumbers in my garden, but 
the market growers seems to have had 
a wonderful crop, and have made money 
from it. One benefit comes from the 
constant flood of water, and that is that 
the green caterpillars cannot keep up 
with the cabbages. Nature’s spi'ay seems 
to keep them down. Then too the sugar 
corn is more free from the boll-worms 
than I have ever known it. Only an 
occasional worm has gotten in. The 
corn pistils have been so constantly 
washed that the moths have had a poor 
chance to lay the eggs. I have some of 
the new Honey Dew cantaloupes, and 
they have set fruit freely and seem to 
withstand the drenching better than the 
older Rocky Ford varieties. 
The Vigobous Kudzu. —And the 
kudzu! Such a specimen of riotous 
growth is amazing. I have to be con¬ 
Tomatoes Rotting 
Can you tell me why my tomatoes rot 
when they ar" ready to ripen? I do not 
have so much trouble when setting the 
plants in the field, but get scarcely any in 
the garden. Can I do anything to keep 
them from rotting? E. E. 
Fryburg, Pa. 
The rotting is probably due to crowd¬ 
ing of the plants, and a naturally moist 
poorly-drained soil. Try giving your 
plants more space. The tall-growing 
kinds should not be planted closer than 
four feet each way, and in very rich 
soil five feet apart each way is not too 
much. The most effective way to over¬ 
come loss by rotting is to train the 
plants on stakes or trellis. This method 
of culture keeps the fruits clear of the 
ground, and insui’es them the benefit of 
full light and free circulation of air at all 
times. As a rule, very slight loss occurs 
from rotting, when grown in this way. K. 
$1185 
F.O.B. 
FACTORY 
Tlie Cleveland is built to stand work—hard work. It is built ot best mate¬ 
rials, under the supervision of Rollin H. White, one of the country's foremost 
truck designers. The gears are identical with those used in finest trucks. They 
•re enclosed in dirtproof, dustproof cases. The Cleveland steers by the power 
of its engine. A light touch on its steering wheel sends it in the desired direction. 
Developing 12 H. P. at its drawbar and 20 H. P. at its pulley, the 
Cleveland hers ample capacity for every power requirement of the farm. 
Cleveland Tractors are in actual use the country over. They are increasing 
(arm production and lowering its cost. They are ofisetting the existing lack of 
labor. They are returning their owners a profit. 
You need a Cleveland. And you need it now. Write for full details of 
construction and performance. Let us show you what a Cleveland can do for 
you—the range of its usefulness is amazing. 
THE CLEVELAND TRACTOR COMPANY, Cleveland, Ohio 
The Cleveland Tractor Company 
Dept, L Cleveland, Ohio Name_ 
Please send me full information about your 
Cleveland Tractor. _ Gty_ 
jState. 
The Cola Plant and Asthma 
I have asthma very badly. I have 
been talking to an old man who had it 
years ago. He got a cure for it called 
Cola plant. Will you try to find it for 
me? A. H. M. 
Catharpin, Ya. 
The Cola plant is a native of Africa 
and of the West Indies. Its fruit, known 
as the Cola nut, contains a principle 
similar to, or identical with, the active 
principle of coffee and tea, caffeine. I 
think that your informant must have 
been mistaken in the belief that he was 
cured of asthma by the use of the Cola 
plant, as it is not known to be beneficial 
in that dLsease, and, if "t were, coffee or 
tea should have the same effect. It is 
possible that your druggist could obtain 
the plant from the wholesale druggists 
with whom he deals. m. b. d. 
NcLtuA«> Soij-Xiwie 
APPLY UME THIS FALL 
Orders must be placed at onca to prevent 
disappointment. The extraordinary car 
shortage makes this imperative. 
Caledonia Marl Lime, the most soluble 
calcium carbonate, proves mosteconom, 
ical. Write for prices, facts, analysis, etc, 
CALEDONIA MARL BRANCH 
International Agricultural Corporation 
812 Marine Bank Bldg., Buffalo, N.Y, 
Steel Wheels 
will make yourold farm wagon nAAtf 
as good as new. Save money be- DUUII 
cause they never need repairs. 
Write for our big free book tell- KIIFF 
ing all about them and how they ■ 
pa^’. aSS;. Co.. Bo 3 79eQulAa9, III, 
SAVE HALF Your 
Paint Bills 
BY USING Ingersoll Paint. 
PROVED BEST by 75 years’ use. It will 
please you. The ONLY PAINT endorsed 
by the “GRANGE” for 43 years. 
Made in all colors—for all purposes. 
Get my FREE DELIVERY offer. 
From Factory Direct to You at Wholesale Prices. 
INGERSOLL PAINT BOOK—FREE 
Telia ail about Paint and Painting for Durability. Valu¬ 
able information FREE TO YOU with Sample Cards. 
Write me. DO IT NOW. I WILL SAVE YOU MONEY. 
Oldest Ready Mixed Paint House In America—Estab. 1842. 
0. W. Ingersoll, 246 Plymouth St., Brooklyn, N .Y, 
WITTEI 
**Kcro-0il” Engines 
Immediate Shipmont~AU Styles— f] ■ C".._ "" 
2 to 22 H-P.—No Waiting—Big Factory—Big | jEVC 
Output—Prices most favorable. Write tor my 
terms and prices—Cash, Payments or No V/kn It 
MoneyDown.~ED. H. \<frrrB, Pres. lOU 313 
WITTE ENGINE WORKS . Paoo. 
1892 Oakland Ava., Kanaaa City. Mo. IA •nZtlll 
1892 Empire Bldg.. Pittaburg, Pa. WttUU 
